


The Generation of Miracles Reincarnated

by KatoKo



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, More Akashi/Kuroko, Only Slight Himuro/Murasakibara, Only slight Aomine/Kise, Only slight Midorima/Takao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 14:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 43,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3854098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatoKo/pseuds/KatoKo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[COMPLETED] '"Akashicchi…" Ryōta Kise stuttered, "Does that mean you want us to be in your team? For the… Olympics?" Akashi-kun only stared back and nodded.' The Generation of Miracles were once again called by Akashi but this time, it was to form a team to be in the Olympic Games. How will they fair? Very slight Akakuro :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The phone buzzed incessantly in Kuroko’s pocket. Who was it? He was in the middle of practice so his parents would know not to call him. No one in school paid any attention to him save his basketball team but he was already with his team, sitting on some of the benches.

He flipped up the phone and sat stock-still. Did Akashi-kun just text him? Ever since the Teiko basketball team had graduated into different schools, Akashi-kun had only texted Kuroko once, which was that time before the Winter Cup, to gather the Generation of Miracles. What did his former captain request now?

Kagami Taiga-kun noticed Kuroko staring at his phone and asked, “Oi, Kuroko, who’s that?”

Kuroko almost flinched at the question from his thoughts. To be honest, he was actually quite scared but at the same time, eager to find out what Akashi-kun wanted. He blanked his face and replied, “Akashi-kun just texted me. I will go out to reply the message.” Kuroko stood up and walked through the swinging doors of the gymnasium.

Once outside, Kuroko pressed the ‘RECEIVE’ button on his phone and read through the message. It was neither good nor bad and since it was a text message, Kuroko could not determine the meaning of the message. As vague as ever, Akashi-kun just told Kuroko to meet him and the others at the street ball court near Seirin High School in two minutes.

Pushing open the swinging doors, Kuroko was met with many pairs of eyes full of suspense staring at him. “What did he say?” Kuroko’s current captain, Hyuuga Junpei asked.

“He told me to meet him somewhere now. Could I please excuse myself from practice? I am very sorry,” Kuroko pleaded. Aida Riko, Seirin High’s basketball coach thought for a while and nodded. Riko was obviously still very wary of the hetero-eyed captain of Rakuzan even though Seirin had beat them, be it by one point due to the free throw given to Seirin because of a foul.

Gaining permission from his coach, Kuroko left the gymnasium after packing up his stuff and began brisk walking to the basketball court. Akashi-kun would not tolerate anyone being late. His orders were absolute.

Turning a corner, Kuroko could see the wired fence surrounding the court and five familiar figures already in the court, one dribbling a ball casually. It was most likely Aomine Daiki-kun. Kuroko quickened his pace so as to prevent them from waiting too long.

“Tetsuya, you are here,” the silky voice of his redheaded captain called out as Kuroko stepped into the court.

Nodding at the others as a greeting, Kuroko questioned, “Akashi-kun. Why did you call us here?” He cleared his throat.  
“Ever since playing against Seirin, I have wanted to reincarnate the Generation of Miracles, but we were all in different schools. However, I have just received news that would allow us to work as a team once more again,” Akashi-kun announced. Kuroko was startled. Did Akashi-kun just say that he wanted to work as a team? Did he realize that he lacked teamwork?

Kuroko did not have time to think further as Akashi-kun unfolded a piece of paper he had been folding and read out, “Dear Akashi Seijurō, Captain of Rakuzan High’s basketball club, we are pleased to invite you to be a national player in the Olympic Games that are to be held in Japan early next year. You may invite any players you deem fit to be on your team to play. As we understand that you are a high school student, we will allow you access to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium used for Inter-High at any time. We will notify you when the gymnasium is in use. Please fill in the compulsory form and send it to the Ministry of Sports within five working days. Thank you. Regards, the Ministry of Sports, Japan.”

Everyone’s jaw was slackened. If Japan were full of flies, they would certainly be eating a whole mouthful of that disgusting bug. “Akashicchi…” Ryōta Kise-kun stuttered, “Does that mean you want us to be in your team? For the… Olympics?” Akashi-kun only stared back and nodded.

“Therefore, I would want Friday and Saturday to be our training day. You may still be with your team to practice, but on those two days, please request to be excused. We may request for practice matches with some teams to test and refine our skills. We start practice this Friday,” Akashi stated. No one dared to defy him, not that anyone wanted to refuse. Finally, after one year and a few months, the Generation of Miracles was getting back together again.

Even Kuroko could tell from the glint in his eye that Murasakibara Atsushi-kun was excited. Aomine-kun looked amused. Shintatō Midorima-kun was emotionless as usual but Kuroko could see his fidgeting. He was fighting the urge to start practice. Kise-kun, on the other hand, was literally jumping up and down, too eager to contain the thrill.

Kuroko was smiling.

Akashi-kun nodded and dismissed the group, seeing as they have all silently agreed to his request. When Kuroko wanted to leave, Akashi-kun placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling for him to stop. Kuroko looked up, confused, at his former captain so Akashi-kun said, “Tetsuya, thank you for teaching me that lesson. Now I finally can understand you reasons for joining Seirin High. Thank you.” Kuroko’s eyes softened as he had finally accomplished his goal: to return his former teammates to the basketball-lovers they were before.

Kise-kun waved from the exit of the court, shouting, “Hey! You guys wanna get some ice cream? It’s been forever since we’ve ate some together!” Akashi-kun usually did not follow the Teiko team for their almost daily serving of ice cream but this time, he agreed. The six of them began walking down the streets towards the convenience stall in the sunset, talking and chatting like how they used to so often in their middle school days.


	2. Chapter 2

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?” the whole Seirin team, consisting of eleven other people shouted in Kuroko’s face, causing him to cover his ears. Kuroko expected them to be surprised, but not THIS surprised. Was he that weak until they thought he could not play with the other Generation of Miracles?

“Seriously, you do not have to shout. I am going deaf. As I said, I will not be able to participate in practices on Fridays as I have practices with the other Generation of Miracles. Could I please request an excuse for practices on Fridays?” Kuroko repeated, turning to Riko.

However, Riko’s mouth was agape and she stood rooted to the spot, similar to the other team members. “Uh, kantoku (or coach, in English)?” Kuroko waved his hand in front of Riko’s face.

“Hah? Uh, sure, I guess, as long as you are still part of Seirin’s basketball team,” Riko answered, but still in a half-daze. “But it’s amazing, Kuroko-kun! I bet you guys are the youngest basketball Olympic team! Say, Kuroko-kun, would your captain mind if we watch your practice on Friday? We could learn a lot!” Riko asked, realizing that it would be a good opportunity to let the Seirin team watch their practice.

“I will ask Akashi-kun,” Kuroko said. He would want Seirin to watch their practice too. With that, Kuroko ignored the team’s stares, walked to the benches, sat down, and took out his phone to text Akashi-kun with a confirmation that he could attend practices and a request if Seirin could watch their practice.

The reply came almost immediately. Akashi-kun thanked Kuroko for his cooperation and agreed to Seirin coming on Friday, as long as they did not disrupt their practice.

“He said that we could go.” Riko cheered.

After Kuroko assured the team that it was not such a big deal, the team continued with practice, running twenty laps around the court and practicing and refining their passing, throwing, receiving and shooting skills, though they were quite distracted, each imagining Kuroko playing in a heated match with the Generation of Miracles.

Kuroko was also partially distracted. He was bubbling with exhilaration and longing for Friday, which was three days away, to come.

* * *

 

Akashi Seijūrō stared at the five text messages he had received coincidentally almost at the same time. Skimming through them, he noted that they comprised of a confirmation that the other members of his going-to-be-formed team could make it to practices, not like anyone would dare to disobey his commands. Each text message had also a request by the respective teams, asking to observe their practice on Friday.

Sighing at the ‘desperation’ of each team, he texted them back, saying that they could, as long as no one disrupted their training. Though Akashi was in his own basketball practice at that time, he was the captain so he could excuse himself whenever he liked. But things would start to get busy for Akashi.

Maybe he should ask his vice-captain, Reo Mibuchi, to take over the team as captain until the Games were over. The team would function better together, knowing full well that the team feared their redheaded captain and would prefer Mibuchi as captain. Rakuzan’s teamwork would improve tremendously.

Since when did the stoic Akashi think like that? Think about his team? He knew the reason why: Tetsuya had changed him. Akashi could still remember every single detail of the match clearly. In the last few seconds of the match, Akashi and Kagami were in the zone. It was Seirin’s turn to start since Rakuzan had just scored a two-pointer, causing both teams’ scores to be tied.

Shun Izuki, the ‘Eagle Eye’ of Seirin and also their Point Guard (PG) started off with the ball and expectedly threw it to Kagami. Even Akashi, using his Emperor Eye, predicted that he would continue to the hoop to score by himself, but Kagami did not even hesitate as he carelessly threw the ball behind him. Tetsuya caught the ball, startled, but continued with the game, passing it to another member, and to the next and next until it reached Kagami again.

He was about to dunk it in, so Akashi, who was marking him, jumped up. Kagami did not have the Right of Postponement like Kiyoshi Teppei had, but again, to Akashi’s surprise, he threw the ball down carelessly again. This time, the PG of the team took the ball and threw it in as a buzzer beater.

After the match, Akashi had gone up to the Seirin team to congratulate them and also to ask them how they could possibly throw the ball randomly like that, thinking that it would not be stolen by the opponent.

Tetsuya had replied, “Akashi-kun, this is the result of teamwork. The trust between us is strong, so strong that we know that another would be there to take the ball.”

It suddenly became so painfully obvious to Akashi the reason why Tetsuya had declined his offer for him to follow Akashi to Rakuzan. He was hurt then, but now he understood. The Teiko team lacked teamwork, lacked trust; they just wanted to do it all by themselves. No wonder Tetsuya went to Seirin. They were all basketball-loving idiots.

So Tetsuya wanted to win against the Generation of Miracles, to make them understand, and to change them back into the same idiots the Seirin team was. Yes, Tetsuya was the one that changed them.

After that match, Akashi loved basketball like he could not live without it. He realized that he had just played it for the sake of winning. Now he was playing to quench his thirst for basketball. Tetsuya, the shadow of the Generation of Miracles, has become the light to lead them.

“Hey, Akashi!” Kotarō Hayama called out to his captain, waking Akashi from his train of thoughts. Akashi walked back to his team.

“Everyone, I have news,” he said loudly, even getting the attention of his coach. Akashi told them of the invitation to join the Olympic Games, about his new team and about Mibuchi being the new captain. “Is that alright?”

Everyone looked dumbfounded. “Seriously? I… can’t believe it! That is so cool!” Hayama cried excitedly, clapping his hands, annoying Akashi somewhat.

“You want to make me… Captain?” Mibuchi stuttered. Akashi just nodded.

“… And you are teaming up with the Generation of Miracles? That’s insane! Down right crazy! They are our opponents and you are teaming up with them? Are you leaving us?” Eikichi Nebuya shouted.

Akashi calmly replied, “No, Nebuya, I will still play for Rakuzan but I will skip Friday practices to practice with my other team. This is for Japan, thus the best players should come together to work together.”

Everyone stood still, silent for a moment. “… What?” Akashi asked.

“Sei-chan, did you just use the word ‘work together’?” Mibuchi asked. Akashi was startled at the remark but he nodded. “Did you change because of Seirin?” Again he nodded, albeit a bit embarrassed.

Then he felt arms encircling him. It was that annoying Hayama. But then Mibuchi did the same. Then the others did so too hesitantly. What was going on?! “You changed too!” Hayama shouted with joy. “Ya know, after that Seirin match, we all knew one thing: teamwork was what we lacked. We wanted to explain it to you but it seems you understood too!”

Akashi felt… weird. He was happy, somewhat, that his team was treating him like family. Was this how a team should feel like? Seirin seemed like this. No wonder Tetsuya liked Seirin so much and even declined Akashi’s offer for him to come to Rakuzan.

After everyone got off, Akashi asked the coach once again to be excused from practices on Friday and he agreed. Akashi practiced with his team, but this time Mibuchi taking the lead, until six before leaving the school back to his house, which was shared with him and his father.

When he reached home, he typed out a letter of confirmation to the Ministry of Sports and posted it. Now the action starts. They were once again the unbeatable team.


	3. Chapter 3

Friday was finally here. It was going to be their first practice together in a long time, as a team once again. If you were at each member of the Generation of Miracles’ classes, you would have seen them fidgeting all day, like they had ants in their pants.

It was two when the school bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Being excited was one thing, but being OVERLY excited was another. The Seirin team had already packed their bags fifteen minutes before the bell rang, so once it did, they rushed out of their respective classrooms like a lion was chasing them.

They met at the bus stop right outside Seirin High. Everyone was surprised that the others all came as early, each person thinking that they would be the first to arrive at the bus stop. When the bus arrived, they hopped on and arrived at the Tokyo Metropolitan Stadium in half an hour and bought their lunches there.

Izuki-sempai was making lame puns again, receiving glares from others while a painful smack to the head by Hyuuga-sempai. Kiyoshi-sempai was laughing so hard after hearing Izuki-sempai’s joke that he had to clutch his stomach and double over laughing.

Their fits of laughter were cut off when they heard a familiar voice, “WHY ARE YOU SO EXCITED FOR? I’LL KICK YOU!” Which proceeded with a shout of pain from their ace.

“Kaijō? You guys are here?” Kiyoshi-sempai asked after calming down his laughing fit.

“Oh? Akashicchi didn’t tell me you guys were coming too!” a certain blonde called out to the Seirin team. Accompanied by his team, Kise jogged over. “Kurokocchi! I missed you so much! I want to play with you again!” Kise made a move to hug Kuroko but Kuroko quickly squirmed away. “Aw man, Kurokocchi! You are turning me down again!” Kise gave a sad puppy-eye look.

“STOP BEING SO IRRITATING, KISE! I’LL KICK YOU AGAIN!” the Kaijō’s basketball team’s captain shouted at the blonde model, kicking him sharply in the shin.

Kise faked a cry and mumbled, “But you already kicked me…”

“What is this? Kaijō and Seirin are here too? Hah, their sempai’s are here too! Just like us!” Shoichi Imayoshi, the ex-captain of the Tōō Academy basketball team exclaimed as the team came strolling into the stadium too.

“Ahem.”

Everyone stopped and stared at the new comer, who was wearing a light blue and white jersey with the number 4 emblazoned on it. “Akashi-kun,” Kuroko greeted first.

“Akashi,” Aomine greeted too.

The next was the loud yell from Kise, “AKASHICCHI! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH TOO!”

“It has only been four days since we’ve last met, Ryōta. Now, everyone, we will start our practice soon. Would the high school teams watch from the spectator seats?” Akashi-kun requested with a commanding aura around him. “You three go change up into your school’s jerseys. The new ones will come next week.” With that, Akashi-kun walked back to the locker room.

While walking to the doors leading to the locker rooms, Kuroko noticed that everyone’s respective schools were present: Seirin, Kaijō, Tōō, Yōsen, Shūtoku and eves Rakuzan were present.

In the locker rooms, Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun were already there, changed up and ready to go. A polar bear plush toy was sitting on one of the benches, presumably Midorima-kun's lucky item for the day.Everyone greeted each other, and then proceeded to change. Strapping on his two matching black wristbands, Kuroko heard Kise-kun tell Aomine-kun, “Everyone’s jerseys look so different and colourful!”

“Of course they are you idiot. How are you going to see who’s on what team if you can’t tell them apart easily?” Aomine-kun sighed.

“But look at Midorimacchi’s jersey! It’s so unique! Plus, it makes him look like a carrot!” Kise-kun explained rather loudly. Aomine-kun burst out laughing. Murasakibara-kun stared at Midorima-kun and nodded approvingly. Akashi-kun smirked. Kuroko kept a blank face.

Meanwhile, Midorima-kun was shooting death glares at everyone in the room, especially the blonde who in turn hid behind Aomine-kun. Akashi-kun cleared his throat to break the tension.

“How would you guys like to train today?” he asked. Kuroko was surprised that the once stubborn captain was actually letting them decide their own training regiment. The others looked equally surprised.

“Maybe we could do one-on-ones after warm up?” Midorima-kun asked.

Akashi-kun looked thoughtful. “We could do that until four-thirty. Shall we ask for a practice match with any of the teams? It may be a little unfair, so how about two teams against us?” That was actually a good idea.

“I agree,” Kuroko answered. The rest nodded, then they followed their captain out to the courts.

Now to start their warm ups.

“Everyone is to run fifty rounds around the court! Tetsuya, you run twenty-five. Then each to do fifty sit-ups!” Akashi-yelled. Their captain had always treated Kuroko differently, often halving the number of exercises he had to do if Akashi-kun thought that it would be too strenuous for him.

Kise groaned but a dark aura immediately surrounded Akashi-kun so he stopped. Everyone started jogging. Even though one round around a court seemed to be easy, going so many rounds was just plain tiring. On the spectator stands, everyone seemed to be whispering, particularly Seirin, as they had only needed to run ten rounds around the court each day and Kuroko already felt tired.

However, Akashi-kun knew best how to push people to their limits and improve them tremendously. After the fifteenth round for Kuroko, he started to pant and slow down. “Tetsuya, I’ll jog with you. Come on! You’ve been through worse in Teiko haven’t you?” Akashi-kun’s voice startled the teal-headed boy and when he turned his head over, he could see Akashi-kun catching up. Kuroko just nodded mutely, unable to talk due to his panting.

He knew Akashi-kun had to slow down to match his speed. Kuroko was never a good athlete. But on the start of the next round, another pair of footsteps came in time with his. Looking to the side, he realized Aomine-kun had also done the same. Then came Kise-kun, Midorima-kun and even Murasakibara-kun.

Kuroko had finished his rounds and went back to sit on the benches, watching the others finish up their last few rounds. When they had finished and sat on the bench beside him, Kuroko managed to croak a soft ‘Thank you’. Midorima-kun waved him off and replied, “It was actually, fun. Maybe we could pace together as a team as practice sometimes so we know each other’s speed.” Everyone agreed. They have all changed so much.

Murasakibara-kun caught Kuroko staring at them and asked, “What are you staring at us for, Kuro-chin?”

Kuroko shook his head and commented, “It’s nothing. It’s just that you all have changed. I’m glad.” He gave a slight smile to his teammates.

“I get that a lot,” Akashi-kun mumbled. “Ok. Enough resting. Shintarō, go against Atsushi. Train your shooting, jumping and speed. Atsushi, train your jumping height. Try to block as many of Shintarō’s throws as possible.”

He pointed to Aomine-kun and Kise-kun. “You two, Daiki, train your stamina in the zone if possible. Ryōta, try to copy Daiki’s formless shots and streetball movements. As for you, Tetsuya, I’ll train you personally.” The rest scurried off immediately, Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun to occupy one court, and the two remaining pairs half court each.

The training sounded easy enough, but truth be told, the level of intensity of their practice was just overwhelming. Every single one of them were seriously doing their best.


	4. Chapter 4

“Mido-chin, I don’t wanna be killed by Aka-chin, so I won’t go easy on you!” Murasakibara warned the green-headed star shooter of the Generation of Miracles.

“Neither do I. Let’s start,” Midorima dribbled the ball in his hands. He was positioned at the centerline of the court. Without wasting a second thought, Midorima threw the basketball in a high arc. He had no idea how much Murasakibara had improved, so he did not dare risk his chances by running to the other basket to defend.

As he had feared, Murasakibara had jumped up high enough so that his hands could cover the whole rim of the basketball hoop and whacked the ball down. Midorima was quick to grab the ball once again and since he was closer to his own basket, he threw it in while Murasakibara landed on the ground.

Growling, Murasakibara muttered, “You are so mean Mido-chin!”

“What can I do? You jump too slowly.”

Murasakibara pouted and the two continued to practice. From their point of view, it was no big deal, but from their spectator’s view, it was on a whole different level.

Firstly, Midorima’s shots were practically unblockable because of its high arc unless, like Kagami, you jumped and blocked him right in front of his face. However, Murasakibara was still able to block the ball when it was about to fall straight into the basket.

Not wasting a moment, Murasakibara had scored his own basket, running at full speed to his basket and dunking it in since he was much taller than Midorima so he could not block him.

Secondly, Murasakibara was humongous. He could even move fast! Not only could he defend perfectly well, he was capable of being on the offense as a very scary and fearsome player. If this small one-on-one match was scary enough, the schools were even more surprised at the players on the other court.

Kise and Aomine were facing off each other. The tension between them radiated so much energy that everyone felt goose bumps forming on their skin. Kise’s eyes darted around as he studied his friend’s movements. He had already half-perfected Aomine’s form of street ball.

Aomine, on the other hand, was not paying any attention to Kise. He was concentrating hard to get into the zone. Only those who have entered the zone knew how difficult it was to enter it willingly.

Kise had the ball first. Trying to remember the feeling he had when he copied Aomine, he tried to break through his screen. But Aomine was a step ahead. He quickly lashed out his arm, knocking Kise’s ball away and grabbing it. Immediately, he threw it in a moment later, knowing it would enter the hoop.

Kise grumbled. Their fight continued on, Kise getting better and better at using Aomine’s street ball style. Their fight was so fast paced that the spectators could only try to keep up. The yellow and blue blur flashed across the half-court like lightning.

No one really paid any attention to the other half of the court where the redheaded captain was tutoring a teal-headed phantom player.

“I’ve already seen what you are capable of in the matches I were watching. Invisible Pass, Ignite Pass, Ignite Pass Kai, Cyclone Pass, Vanishing Drive, Misdirection Overflow and Phantom Shot. In the Rakuzan match, you have awakened your own version of the Emperor Eye. Is that correct?”

Kuroko nodded. It was amazing how he had realized that he could predict his teammate’s movements with so much accuracy that even he himself was shocked. I certainly closed up the point gap between the two schools.

“Hm. It works with your teammates only because of their trust, right?” Akashi received another nod. “Well, we shall train it then. Firstly, do you believe in us?”

“Hai. But I am not sure if you all trust me.” Akashi looked thoughtful for a while.

“Tetsuya, I’d like to request something. I would like to be your Light, seeing as we will be able to predict each other’s moves as long as we believe in each other. Is that alright with you?”

Kuroko was stunned for a while. The idea had never occurred to him, as his only Lights were Aomine and Kagami, the aces of their teams. “I… think it would be alright.”

Akashi had a delighted smirk on his face. “Alright, then we shall start training as a duo. We shall try to improve your Emperor Eye too. Well then, let’s begin training.”

Akashi held the ball and bounced it a few times on the floor. “I want you to predict where I will throw the ball.” Kuroko immediately ran over to the three-point line. Akashi was going to throw the ball there. And he did, so Kuroko caught it.

“That was good. We shall test the reliability of your predictions.” Kuroko caught the ball again, this time nearer to the centerline. But Kuroko could not predict his next throw, which went into the hoop instead.

Kuroko pouted and Akashi resisted the smile on his face. “You have to know where your teammates would throw it, be it in the hoop too.” After a while, Akashi concluded that Kuroko’s predictions were mostly correct, and most of the times when he could not catch it was when he was not fast enough to.

“We will practice like this until you get every prediction correct. For now, we shall go watch Daiki and Ryōta train. Predict their moves.” The duo went and sat on the benches.

Kuroko watched their moves. Now that he had awakened this new ability, it was amazingly easier to predict how they would move, considering Kise was copying Aomine. “Kise should have blocked left,” Kuroko mumbled as Aomine broke past Kise’s screen from the left.

“Oh? You are getting used to it, I see.” Kuroko nodded again, still watching the small one-on-one match. Akashi looked at the clock on the wall. It was four-thirty. “STOP! Time for a break.” Hearing their captain’s orders, the four other players stopped their own matches and came to sit on the bench to cool down.

“Aominecchi, it’s not fair! You were in the zone!”

“So? It isn’t unfair.”

“Aka-chin, I’m hungry. I want snacks.”

“Sigh. Murasakibara, we have a practice match next, remember?”

Ignoring the ramblings of his teammates, Akashi now faced the schools on the spectator seats. Clearing his throat, he asked loudly, “We would like a practice match between us and two school teams. Would any schools like to volunteer?”

“A… Akashi-kun, wasn’t that a bit too blunt?” Kuroko stuttered.

Akashi ignored the comment and continued, “It may be unfair, and so we are allowing two teams from two different schools against us as one team. We are at a further disadvantage though, as Satsuki, our manager, is not here.”

Seeing the confused glances from the other members of the Generation of Miracles, Aomine explained that Momoi had been sick, but she would be there tomorrow. To be honest, most of them had been too excited and forgot about their pink-headed manager who loved to fawn over their phantom sixth man.

Murmurs could be heard from the gathered schools. Comments like “But they are so powerful!”, “Should we try it out?” and “This is so random!” were heard.

After a while longer, the coaches of two schools stood up hesitantly.

“Are you serious?” Kise wailed. “WHY THOSE TWO OF ALL SCHOOLS? WHY THE SCHOOLS BEST IN DEFENSE AND THE BEST IN OFFENCE?” He received a whack to the head by Aomine.

“Shut up! Be happy you are able to versus two of the best schools in Japan!” Aomine growled. The two schools were obviously, from what Kise had said, Tōō and Yōsen. This match was going to be tough.


	5. Chapter 5

Preparations were needed to facilitate three teams, so Akashi-kun had the stadium prepared for us to use two courts instead of one. Meanwhile, the others went to the locker rooms to prepare.

“Aomine-kun,” Kuroko asked hesitantly while the team was walking to the locker rooms. The tanned player let out a ‘hm’ to show that he was listening. “Uh, Akashi-kun requested something just now. He wanted to be my Light from now on.”

“If Akashi was the one who requested it, su— WAIT WHAT? WHY?”

“As long as we believe in each other, we can predict each other’s moves perfectly well. I have awakened my own Emperor Eye, remember? Unless you were not there to watch the match which I doubt so.”

Aomine-kun looked thoughtful for a while. “True… But Tetsu, will we be able to play again… together?”

“Ahomine-kun,” Kuroko replied. Aomine-kun’s eyebrow twitched at the nickname. Kuroko gave a small smile. “Of course we will.”

Upon arriving at the locker room assigned to them, Midorima-kun announced, “Akashi is not here now, but we need to discuss a strategy. Murasakibara, is your team able to block my shots like you did?”

Murasakibara-kun was searching through his bag for potential snacks. “Mm, no. Don’t think so. Does anyone have anymore snacks?”

Midorima-kun ignored the last comment and continued, “Aomine, how about your team?”

“Ah? They relied on me a lot for offense but by themselves they can be a scary bunch too. My former captain specializes in stealing balls, performing double clutches and he’s smart. My current captain is good at rebounding. Then there’s Ryō who’s good at doing fast three-pointers.”

“Yeah I copied his three-pointers the last time we played,” Kise-kun agreed.

“Are there any other things we need to know about any of these schools?” Midorima-kun asked.

Kuroko spoke up, “Himuro Tatsuya of Yōsen can do perfect fakes and Mirage Shot. He rolls the ball up first then catches it when his jump is at its peak, then throws it. He will be hard to block.” Midorima-kun nodded.

Midorima-kun decided that we would just pass to whoever was free and that if possible, Kuroko would be in-charge of stealing the ball with Akashi-kun and Aomine-kun occasionally helping. Murasakibara-kun could just stay under the opponent’s basket to block their ball and catch any rebounds.

With that decided, the team just proceeded to cool down chat until Akashi-kun arrived. Midorima-kun, our vice-captain, told Akashi-kun our plans and he agreed. “It’s going to start soon. Let’s go.”

Cheers erupted from the stadium as all three teams walked out of the entrances. The Generation of Miracles was also quite nervous. They have never tried to versus two teams before. That would make escaping marks and screens much harder and the fact that there could be twice the number of defenders was scary.

“Daiki. Rest for a while first since you were in the zone. The rest of us will be starters,” Akashi-kun ordered. Aomine-kun frowned but followed his captain’s orders nonetheless. On the other side of the courts, Kuroko could see Yōsen and Tōō’s teams talking. A reserve member from each of those two schools had joined too.

“Ahhhh I’m so excited! I can’t wait! Gosh! It's going to be so fun!” Kise-kun exclaimed jumping around.

“Ah shut up Kise! I’m already not allowed to play because I entered the zone just now!” Aomine-kun complained and then added softly, “All because of that captain of ours. Hmpf.”

“Did I hear you say something, Daiki?” Akashi-kun had a menacing aura around him. Aomine-kun gulped and shook his head. “Alright. Let’s start this match.”

The referee for the match was the Rakuzan’s coach, Eiji Shirogane. He started the ball in the middle of the two courts. Both teams’ centers leapt up. It was a battle between Murasakibara-kun and Tōō’s center, Wakamatsu Kōsuke. It was unsaid that Murasakibara-kun caught the ball first and whacked it down for Akashi-kun to catch.

The opponent was using a two-on-one defense. It was difficult to break through. However, Akashi-kun knew how to break past marks. He had a talent for using Ankle Break, which threw his defenders’ balance off and caused them to fall.

Disappearing from his two defenders, Kuroko caught the ball Akashi-kun threw and accelerated the ball with Ignite Pass to Kise-kun, who then did a fast three-pointer like how Sakurai Ryō does. The Generation of Miracles had scored the first basket and loud cheers were heard from the spectator seats.

The opponent had the ball. Shoichi Imayoshi, the former captain of Tōō dribbled the ball and passed it to Kensuke Fukui, the former point guard of Yōsen. Then he passed it to Himuro-san at the three-point line. No one was there to mark him yet as the others screened them, so he threw it. However, Murasakibara-kun jumped and whacked the ball into Kise-kun’s waiting hands.

Kise-kun threw a bounce pass to Midorima-kun but Liu Wei intercepted it. However, when he wanted to throw it to Sakurai-san, Akashi-kun stole the ball and passed it to Midorima-kun. Most of the players were on Yōsen and Tōō’s side of the court, so even if the ball rebounded, there was a low chance of the ball being taken by the other team. But Midorima-kun’s shots never missed.

He threw the ball into the hoop with a high arc and now the points were 6-0. This time, Kensuke-san was the one who started with the ball. He passed it to Susa Yoshinori, then to Sakurai-san once again. Kise-kun was there to block him so instead, he threw it to Himuro-san. Murasakibara-kun stood in front of him.

Instead of shooting the ball in by himself, he threw it to the reserve player of Tōō who then shot it in. Kuroko took the ball this time. Once the other teams saw him with the ball, they knew what was going to happen, but they were not fast enough to reach the other side of the court where Akashi-kun was already waiting. Kuroko passed the ball with Cyclone Pass and Akashi-kun dunked it in.

It was surprisingly easy for Kuroko to break out of his marks and pass the ball. His defenders were not use to his weak presence yet, which was a good thing. The score difference just got wider and wider, with the Generation of Miracles leading. However, they suddenly changed tactics once the score point was fifteen and they realized that two-to-one marking would not work.

Instead, they marked Kuroko three-to-one and furthermore, they changed marks often for the other four members of Kuroko’s team. They were copying Seirin’s new form of marking that they used the previous time.

No matter what Kuroko tried, he could not break free of his marks this time. They were getting used to his presence and thus they were not changing marks like the others. They surrounded him in a triangle and thus blocked each others view of the other members of his team in case Kuroko wanted to use Vanishing Drive. What was worse was that Susa Yoshinori, Imayoshi Shoichi and Wakamatsu Kōsuke were the ones marking him and since Kuroko had used Misdirection Overflow while playing with that team, they were used to his presence.

Their coaches have really thought this through. They may be able to prevent Kuroko from getting hold of the ball, but they had used three members from their team and they did not know how to defend the others. Midorima-kun and Kise-kun had been scoring many points, but so have the other teams.

“WHEEEEEEEE” the whistle blew, signaling the end of the first quarter. The point score was 52-40, a twelve point difference with the Generation of Miracles leading.

“Phew! That was an amazing match! Whoohoo!” Kise-kun cheered.

Akashi-kun ignored Kise-kun. “Tetsuya, they have been marking you a lot. Member change. Daiki, you’re up.” Kuroko nodded and went to the benches to sit, giving Aomine-kun a high five. He had not played such an intense game since the championship games in middle school. It was then that he realized that he had longed to play with his former teammates once again. He smiled. He could finally play with them together, not worrying about surpassing another or the stress about losing against a former teammate. They were finally a team again.


	6. Chapter 6

“Did Kuroko always play like that?” Kagami asked in wonderment. Yes, he had seen Kuroko play without him before, but never when he teamed up with the other Generation of Miracles. Before the three from Tōō started to mark him, he had been receiving passes and passing the ball at break-neck speed to the next player, be it using a normal pass or an Ignite Pass. He looked so fluent using all his skills.

“Bakagami! Of course!” Riko whacked her freshman. “But… never this good. I think they were right that they could bring out Kuroko’s full potential. Did you see how he disappeared and passed?”

“Yeah… It make’s me feel kinda bad knowing Kuroko could have done so much more if all of us were as powerful as them,” Hyūga confessed.

Kagami frowned. “If you feel bad, what about me! I’m such a weak Light compared to them! Look at Kuroko!” The rest glanced down at their phantom player.

“… He’s smiling. And it’s one of those real smiles!” Izuki observed, intrigued. “He really seems to enjoy playing with them. So nice how nice it is!”

“GO DIE! SERIOUSLY STOP IT WITH THE PUNS!” Hyūga roared and whacked Izuki on the head. Izuki rubbed the bruise that was threatening to grow.

“Oh? You guys want to get stronger, huh? Well your training menus have been doubled!” Riko cheered. The others all groaned. Riko’s training menus were already Hell to them, but unbeknownst to them, Kuroko had actually experienced real Hell in training under Akashi’s hands.

The Seirin team focused on the match in front of them once again.

The point difference was slowly decreasing, with more people to spare since they did not need three people just to mark Kuroko. However, none of the Generation of Miracles were even pushed to be in the zone. Now it was just a six-point difference.

“Dammit! Their defense is so irritating!” Aomine wailed. Yes, he had scored many points already but Yōsen and Tōō were not called the best defense and best offense for nothing. While the Yōsen team marked each member of the Generation of Miracles, the Tōō team scored the points. It really was getting onto everyone’s nerves.

“Shit!” Aomine cursed as the other team scored another basket with Ryō’s fast three-pointer so Murasakibara had little time to defend from.

Akashi gave a wary glance to the tanned teen. “Mind your language, Daiki. Change tactics. One pass and then score. At most two. Pass it on,” Akashi told Aomine as he ran past the teen.

Nodding and muttering a ‘Yes, Mother’ to Akashi, he told Kise the new plan after running past him. He noticed that Akashi had already told the other two. So far they had been passing on the spot to a free player since they have been marked so tightly, but now Akashi wanted them to break free of their marks and shoot the ball.

Oh well, it was not like Aomine could not manage that. There was still five minutes to the second quarter. There were two players marking him and one was from Yōsen while the other Tōō member would keep changing marks.

Akashi passed the ball to him and he caught it. He was not called part of the Generation of Miracles for nothing. Not really thinking, Aomine just dribbled the ball and escaped his two defenders. Most of his team members were near to the net and it was a little crowded, so he just formlessly shot the ball in from the three-point line.

At least the other team did not have that idiot Kagami on their team, if not Aomine would have surely gone into the zone. Running back to the center of the court, he saw Akashi steal the ball once again and did an Ankle Break on both of his defenders. The rest were all marked tightly, so Akashi just dribbled the ball, breaking past his defenders and dunked the ball in.

Even though he was second shortest after Kuroko on the team, he could still amazingly dunk. Akashi hung there for a moment before dropping to the ground once more. Eight-point difference.

However, the other opponent used Akashi’s dunk time to dribble the ball back to the center where it was passed to Ryō to shoot. Midorima was marking him, giving him pressure.

Ryō released the ball quickly but Midorima was fast to jump, grabbing the ball and throwing a three-pointer himself into the hoop on the other side of the court. Ryō was fired up though.

However, the next time Ryō got the ball, he threw it faster than before and Midorima could not catch it, but Murasakibara instead blocked the hoop entrance. The other team radiated off anger. The point difference was not getting bigger and bigger, due to the fact that now the opponent could not steal as many balls.

At the end of the second quarter, the point difference went up to fifteen. “Hah, hah, hah! Running two courts is tiring!” Kise complained once again.

Akashi, without even sparing at glance at Kise, said, “Well then, do not worry. Tomorrow’s training shall be stamina training then. Ryōta, yours will be doubled.”

“Wha—”

A scissors was pointed at his neck and Kise shut up. They did not even spot a scissors just now in Akashi’s bag! Where in the world did it come from? “Midorimacchi! Why did you even give Akashicchi you scissors last time! Now it’s his official weapon and it’s scary!”

“Tripled,” Akashi replied, amused. Kise had the intelligence not to even rebut. “It’s a ten minute break. Let’s go.” The others obediently trotted after Akashi.

Once in the locker rooms, Akashi said, “I believe they will stop marking us two-to-one. They will be putting the Tōō players on their scoring side while the Yōsen players on our scoring side.”

“How do you know?” Aomine asked.

Akashi scoffed. “I am always right.” Aomine hid his snort. “Daiki, Atsushi, go into the Zone if you like. Are any of you tired?”

“Me! I’ve been marked so tightly so that I can’t see their special moves! I want to sit on the bench to observe them,” Kise piped up.

Akashi nodded. “Tetsuya, you’re up for the third quarter. Rest of you, if you are able to, try to get into the zone. In the Olympics, we may not know how powerful our opponents are, so I want to make sure you all are at your strongest possible abilities. Now go hydrate yourselves.”

The others quickly went to drink more water. Running over two full courts for twenty minutes really tired many of them.

The third quarter was just amazing. Even in the zone, Aomine still passed to Kuroko, showing that he was learning teamwork. With Kuroko on the court once again and with Aomine in the zone, the difference in scores just shot up. Murasakibara had apologized to the redhead, saying that he could not enter the zone again.

Now the Yōsen and Tōō team were really pissed. Even though Aomine was from Tōō, they had tried a four-on-one game with Aomine before, pressuring Aomine to enter the zone then too, but even though they outnumbered Aomine, he still won.

Using his speed that only few could catch up with, Aomine passed the ball to Kuroko who then passed it back to him to break free of his defenders and slam-dunked the ball into the hoop with his amazing strength and caused it to rattle dangerously. Running past Kuroko, they bumped fists again. Kuroko smiled brightly.

“Someone from Tōō! Come mark Kuroko!” the captain of Yōsen, Fukui Kensuke, shouted form across the court. Himuro jogged over and Wakamatsu replaced him as defense.

Wakamatsu was keeping a very close eye on Kuroko, but one person was not enough to prevent Kuroko from vanishing. Using a Vanishing Drive on a Yōsen player, he caught the incoming ball from Kise, predicting his movements. A tall Yōsen player came to block him but Kuroko shot the ball with a Phantom Shot.

“Awesome, Kurokocchi! You finally learnt how to shoot!” Kise shouted from the bench.

Akashi jogged back, looking pissed, body radiating annoyance. The temperature immediately dropped. “Curse that Imayoshi. He is pissing me off.” Aomine raised an eyebrow at his captain’s bad mood. Everyone knew Imayoshi liked to stress his opponents.

But Imayoshi probably did not know that when Akashi was angry, things were most probably going to get worse. Aomine, while running past some of his teammates, muttered, “I will come to your funeral.”

Eyebrows quirked at what Aomine said. They will know why soon enough. Even when he was not in the zone, Akashi was a deadly player. For the remaining part of the second half, he had shot and dunked in probably tens of balls, causing the team’s scores to rise to above 100. Everyone, save Kuroko, had already completed their usual quota of twenty points once Kise was switched in back in the fourth quarter.

The other team, on the other had, lost by the Generation of Miracles having almost doubled their points, 146-75. The referee blew his whistle and both teams lined up. He announced the winner. Still pissed, Akashi shook the hands of the two team’s captains and stormed back to the locker rooms.

Kuroko had shouted up to his Seirin team that they could head back first, as he would be walking home with his other team. They nodded and gave congratulations to Kuroko and his team before walking off. Seirin was still shocked from the Generation of Miracles’ play with the two teams and Kuroko was not yet read for their barrage of questions.


	7. Chapter 7

Akashi-kun was muttering to himself angrily as the rest of the team walked into the locker rooms. “Daiki, how can you even stand that former captain of yours? And that shooting guard of yours! He shouldn’t even shoot if he was going to apologize!”

“A reason why I don’t go practices,” Aomine-kun grumbled. It was rare to see Akashi-kun so angry. Perhaps they had really done a good job getting on Akashi-kun’s nerves. At the end of the match, you could see the other two teams crouching on their hands and knees, panting crazily.

Akashi-kun had increased the pace of the game so fast that no one could catch up, so Kise-kun was subbed in and Kuroko was taken out. Aomine-kun could catch up, Midorima-kun just grabbed the ball and shot, and Kise-kun just broke past defenders to dunk. Murasakibara-kun had just blocked ball after ball.

“Akashi-kun, don’t you think that was a little… to harsh?” Kuroko asked timidly.

Akashi-kun smirked. “But it was a good workout and it was fun! They were two teams against us, remember? We should not go easy on them.” The rest nodded slightly. “Let’s change up. Anyone up for ice cream?”

Everyone’s face literally lit up. They have finally accomplished one of their very lame Teiko quests: To make Akashi-kun like ice cream since he was the only one who would not follow them after basketball practice in Teiko for ice cream. “Yes! Gimme five!” Kise-kun cheered, giving everyone hi-fives. Akashi-kun just stared at everyone weirdly but dismissed it, changing into his Rakuzan uniform, ignoring the lame cheers of the others.

Once everyone was changed, they headed out of the large stadium.

“Ano… Akashi-kun, where is Akashi-kun heading off to now?” Kuroko asked his captain as the whole group walked once again to the convenience stall.

“Hm? There’s training again tomorrow so I think I will get a hotel room then.” Akashi replied. His family was rich anyway so his father had actually bought an apartment for Akashi during their middle school days but moved back in with his father in Kyoto when he went to Rakuzan. They had sold the Tokyo apartment.

“Ano… It would be troublesome and a waste of money. Would Akashi-kun like to stay over at my house every weekend? It would be more convenient for you. I am sure my parents would not mind,” Kuroko offered.

“Are you sure? Otō-san does not like me asking for troublesome favours,” Akashi-kun asked. Kuroko shook his head. “Uhm, I guess if you won’t mind, yes it will be less troublesome. I will repay you another time. Thank you.”

The team parted ways as the left the convenience store, each sucking on an ice cream. It was the normal light blue ones that they used to buy everyday. Kuroko and Akashi-kun walked in silence for a while on the way to the bus stop. When they reached, they threw their finished ice cream sticks into the dustbin.

The bus came and both boarded and headed to Kuroko’s house. They arrived at a quite modern looking house with two stories. Kuroko unlocked the front door and went in. The sweet smell of delicious food cooking wafted to the two’s noses.

“Ah, Tetsuya! You’re home! Eh? Who’s that with you?” Long teal hair peeked out from the kitchen, no doubt it was Kuroko’s mother. Akashi-kun jumped a little, not noticing Kuroko’s mother.

“Okā-san, this is Akashi-kun, my Teikō basketball team’s captain and captain for the Olympic Games too. His house is in Kyoto, so I had offered him to stay over at our house since there is practice tomorrow. Is that alright?” Kuroko asked.

“Sure! He’s even welcomed to stay for the whole weekend!” came the cheerful reply. “We’ve got enough for dinner since Tetsuya doesn’t even eat much!” It was not often that Kuroko had a friend come over, let alone stay a night or two. Akashi-kun nodded politely before following Kuroko to his room.

“Apparently you had inherited your mother’s invisibility and looks. I assume your over-politeness is from your father?” Akashi-kun asked, amused at the similarity between Kuroko and his parents. Kuroko threw him a pout.

When they opened the door a bark could be heard. “What the—” Akashi-kun could not even finish his sentence as the white and black blur pounced onto him, knocking him off his feet and slamming into the floor. Kuroko closed the door behind.

“Sorry, Akashi-kun. I picked up this dog this year since someone abandoned it. It has become Seirin’s mascot of sorts and its name is Tetsuya Number Two, in short, Nigō. Do not worry, it is obedient,” Kuroko explained, knowing full well that Akashi-kun did not like disobedient dogs. Glancing at Akashi-kun, he realized the taller teen could not answer as Nigō was apparently licking his face. “Nigō, that’s enough. Come here,” Kuroko ordered. The dog did as he was told.

Akashi-kun wiped his saliva-covered face. “He sure is a friendly one. If he’s obedient, then I do not mind.” Standing up, he proceeded to wash his face with water in Kuroko’s bathroom. Once out, Nigō was sitting near the bathroom door, wagging its tail enthusiastically. Akashi stared at the hyperactive dog. “I think I know why you named it Number 2. He really looks like you.”

Kuroko nodded sheepishly. Many people have observed that both their eyes looked the same colour and shape. It was hilarious. Without changing out, Kuroko lead Akashi-kun down to the dining table where five bowls of Japanese curry were laid out.

“I hope I am not imposing,” Akashi-kun said as he took the seat beside Kuroko.

A man with dark brown hair sat down opposite Akashi-kun. “No, it certainly is not! Thank you very much for coming to stay over, Akashi-kun,” the man said. Akashi-kun assumed that he was Kuroko’s father, with the same over-politeness as Kuroko.

The teal-headed woman came to sit down, followed by an older woman, presumably Kuroko’s grandmother. “Itadakimasu!” everyone said before digging in.

While eating, Kuroko’s mother asked, “Tetsuya, what made you ask Akashi-kun to stay over? You don’t do that often.”

“Akashi-kun is the one that invited me to be part of his Olympic team. It is the least I could do to thank him for the favour. Since he lives in Kyoto, it would be easier for him to stay over for the weekends,” Kuroko replied. His parents nodded understandingly.

“Oh! I just noticed! Why are your eye colours different? It’s amazing!” she piped up again.

Kuroko’s father, noticing the awkwardness, just said, “Do not pressure the boy! Come on, let’s continue eating. Once you boys are done, go bathe and sleep. I heard you have practice tomorrow. May I ask what time it is?”

“It starts at seven in the morning and ends at five in the evening. There will be a lunch break for an hour in between,” Akashi-kun replied. Throughout the dinner, Kuroko’s mother made most of the conversation and Akashi-kun was surprised in the drastic difference between the characteristics of mother and son.

After excusing themselves and going to bathe, Kuroko laid an extra tatami mat on the floor beside his bed since the house did not have a guest room. “Akashi-kun, I can sleep on the—”

“No. I am already imposing on your family. I will sleep on the floor. Do not worry,” Akashi-kun cut off Kuroko’s sentence. Knowing that nothing could change his captain’s mind, both of them settled in for the night with Nigō on a cushion at a corner of the room.

The night went through peacefully. However, when Kuroko’s alarm clock rang at six, he realized Akashi-kun was not in the room. “Akashi-kun?” Kuroko asked. Just then, the door squeaked open and the sound of a dog panting could be heard. The said teen walked in causally in his Rakuzan basketball clothes.

“Oh, sorry I forgot to tell you. I woke up at five thirty to go for my morning jog and your dog just insisted on following,” Akashi-kun replied with Nigō wagging his tail at Akashi-kun’s feet. Kuroko shrugged and proceeded to make his bed. “Tetsuya, what happened to your hair?”

Kuroko felt his hair. He totally forgot about his notorious bed hair. “I will go fix it,” Kuroko answered, but not before hearing Akashi-kun chuckle. It was rare to see his captain smile, but ever since he changed, he had been opening up more to the other members of his team though he seemed a little wary of strangers still. But he was progressing.

Kuroko went to the bathroom to change up and fix his bed hair. When he walked out, he saw Akashi-kun sitting on the floor with his right hand out, petting Nigō on the head. Kuroko smiled and said, “Let’s go for breakfast. We have training later.”

“Is Nigō coming along?” Akashi-kun asked, surprising Kuroko.

“If you allow, yes,” Kuroko replied in which Akashi-kun said that he allowed. The two then went down for a small breakfast so as to prevent a stitch later on while practicing. Kuroko placed Nigō in his basketball bag to smuggle him on the bus since pets were not allowed on the bus.

Akashi-kun gave him a weird look but did not comment. Nigō looked like he understood his owner’s situation and obediently did not bark for the whole trip to the stadium.

It was six forty-five when they arrived and the sun was just starting to peek out of the horizon. Kuroko let Nigō down and the dog followed the two of them into the stadium to prepare for their second practice with the Generation of Miracles.


	8. Chapter 8

The door to the locker room slammed open, revealing a dark-haired teen and a very familiar pink head. “TETSU-KUN! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH! I WAS SICK SO I MISSED YESTERDAY’S PRACTICE!” the long pink-haired girl yelled, throwing herself at Kuroko.

“Momoi-san, I can’t breathe,” Kuroko managed to rasp, trying to break free from Momoi-san’s crushing hug.

“Oi, Satsuki, you’re suffocating him. Let go already!” Aomine-kun, who had came in with Momoi-san shouted. She squeaked and got off Kuroko who had slammed into the floor. She then noticed the white and black dog sitting beside Kuroko.

“Tetsu-kun! You brought your cute dog here!” Momoi-san screeched and went forward to pet it. Nigō licked her fingers. Unable to stand the cuteness of the Alaskan Malamute, Momoi-san fainted, much to Kuroko’s shock and concern.

Aomine-kun sighed exasperatedly and carried Momoi-san to the benches beside the courts.

Then came Kise-kun, yelling a loud ‘hello’ to everyone, fawning over Nigō and the similarities between the owner and the dog. Then Midorima-kun came in with a gigantic pink pencil. He glared at the innocent looking dog. It seemed like he still held a grudge against Nigō for peeing in his cart during the Winter Cup. Then Murasakibara-kun walked in leisurely and as expected, was snacking on some chips.

While changing up, Kuroko heard Kise-kun whisper to Midorima-kun, “Oi, Midorimacchi, please do not give Akashicchi your pencil! He might use it as a weapon next!” Kuroko could only manage a smile at his former student’s antics.

“I heard my name,” came the dangerous reply of Akashi-kun.

“A-ah! It was nothing, Akashicchi! Ok! Let’s go for practice!” Kise-kun replied quickly, trying to change the subject.

Akashi-kun did not look convinced but said, “Remember, Ryōta. Your training menu for today was tripled. From now on, we shall increase the number of rounds we run around the court. Everyone will do fifty-five rounds. Tetsuya, you will jog until everyone is finished. Is that alright? Then tell me the number of rounds you had ran.” Kuroko nodded. “Ryōta, you will do one hundred and sixty-five rounds.” Kise-kun visibly cringed.

In Teikō, Akashi-kun had made them all run two hundred rounds around the court each before. Since Akashi-kun had always treated Kuroko well, he had been made to run one hundred rounds only, but Kuroko still did throw up after that, causing Akashi-kun to reduce his number of rounds to a minimum of fifty which he took an hour to complete.

“Then we will do sit-ups, lunges and stretching exercises. One hundred of each in five minutes. Tetsuya, just do as many as you can. Ryōta? Do your own calculations.” Again, Kise-kun cringed.

“Then we will play a mini game. A three-on-three. Form your teams now. Tetsuya, you are with me.” Kuroko nodded

“E-eeeh? Why is Kurokocchi with you, Akashicchi?” Kise-kun asked.

“I am now his light.”

“EEEEEEEEH?”

Akashi-kun gave him a death glare and he stopped, so Kuroko explained instead, “In the Seirin and Rakuzan match, I awakened my own version of the Emperor Eye. It can only read the movements of teammates who both sides trust each other completely. Akashi-kun figured that since he could read my movements and I would be able to read his, a duo with him as my light would work perfectly.” The rest, save Akashi-kun and Aomine-kun who already knew, nodded hesitantly.

They regained their composure and proceeded to form teams. Akashi-kun, Aomine-kun and Kuroko was one team. Kise-kun, Midorima-kun and Murasakibara-kun was the second team. Once it was decided, the team walked on the corridors to the courts.

Momoi-san was already awake and waiting for the team to arrive. Before Momoi-san could faint again after seeing Nigō walking beside Kuroko, Aomine-kun warned her. Momoi-san just sat on the benches, Nigō playing with one of Aomine’s extra basketball by her feet, rolling about.

Midorima-kun muttered darkly to himself seeing the dog, “Since he blends in so much like a basketball, I want to throw him into the hoop.”

Kuroko looked at him worriedly. Momoi-san immediately shouted, “No! Don’t you dare Midorin!” Midorima-kun just scoffed. Akashi-kun then cleared his throat and commanded them to start warming up and for Momoi-san to time each of them.

They started to run their torturous many rounds. Well to Kuroko it was since Seirin had only let them run a maximum of twenty rounds in one seating before and he was unfortunately used to it. But he knew he had to get his stamina up.

For the first twenty rounds or so, the rest looked fine. Then soon they started panting quite heavily. On the tenth round, Kuroko was already panting. In ten minutes, the rest had completed their fifty-five rounds and Kuroko managed to do thirty. While they were resting drinking water, they could only pity the blonde model who still had a hundred more laps to do.

Kise-kun laid on the floor tiredly once he was done. To Kuroko, thirty was already enough, let alone multiply that by five and a half, that would surely be Hell. “Ryōta, you have five minutes to rest before we continue,” Akashi-kun commanded to the teen who was sprawled on the floor, ignoring his groans.

He then asked Kuroko how many rounds he had ran and recorded down the time taken for everyone to finish fifty-five rounds. It was five minutes when he was done. They set up some mats for the sit-ups. Akashi-kun helped Kuroko and they switched roles. By the time all of them were done, every single cell in their bodies were screaming for them to stop.

“Alright, we will do the three-on-three match in the afternoon. Let’s go for lunch,” Akashi-kun looked at the time on the wall clock and said. The rest sighed with relief.

“Let’s go to Maji Burger! I haven’t eaten their Teriyaki Burgers for so long!” Aomine-kun yelled.

“I’d like a vanilla milkshake there too. And they allow pets there,” Kuroko said. Midorima-kun had an angry vein popping out.

While the team and a dog walked out of the stadium to the nearest Maji Burger restaurant, Akashi-kun whispered to Kuroko, “I’ll treat you to your milkshake as thanks for letting me stay over.”

“No, I will pay for it myself.”

“Yes, I will.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes, I will. It’s an order.”

The rest looked at the two squabbling teammates, probably wondering what they were arguing about and how Kuroko could actually defy his captain so easily without the redhead killing him. Kuroko sighed in defeat. He knew not to push his captain too far lest he try to force the phantom to eat a Kagami-kun-like-portion of food.

They finally arrived at the small fast food restaurant and each ordered a meal. Well, Aomine-kun practically purchased a Kagami-kun-heap of Teriyaki Burgers just like what Kagami-kun would buy. Kuroko himself bought a vanilla milkshake while the rest just bought a regular meal.

Staring at the tanned teen, Kuroko remarked, “Aomine-kun, you are just like Kagami-kun.

“What? NO! I’m not like that Bakagami in any way!” Aomine-kun retorted. Kuroko just stared at his mountain of burgers.

“Tetsuya is right. The way you play is the same. In addition, both of you are basketball idiots,” Akashi-kun deadpanned, earning a glare from Aomine-kun and chuckles from the rest save Kuroko who just smiled.

Throughout lunch, Kise-kun told about his stories modeling and basketball and his former captain, Kasamatsu always hitting him. Murasakibara-kun had also talked about sweets and even offered everyone a sweet each, Kuroko’s being vanilla flavoured which he took gratefully. Midorima-kun told everyone’s horoscopes and recommended that each of us got a lucky item too. Of course, everyone did not listen.

Once they were done, they walked back to the stadium, but not before Midorima found a very sticky and stinky basketball bag of his. Beside it, Nigō was wagging his tail playfully. “I knew Oha-Asa was right. They said that Cancers would have very bad luck today!” Midorima-kun growled. However, before he could do anything to harm the ‘innocent’ dog even though Kuroko had repeatedly apologized (he did not mean it though), Akashi-kun had picked him up and Nigō started licking his face.

“Eh? Akashicchi! I thought you didn’t like dogs!” Kise exclaimed.

“Only disobedient ones.”

“YOU CALL THAT DAMNED DOG OBEDIENT?” Midorima-kun had shouted. Akashi-kun gave him a warning look so he set his mouth in a straight line and went to wash his basketball bag.

Then they walked back to the stadium where they would be holding their little three-on-three match.


	9. Chapter 9

Momoi threw the ball up high into the air. Murasakibara, being the overly tall center player of their team of three, immediately whacked the ball down to the waiting hands of Kise.

“Awesome!” Kise grinned as he dribbled the ball. But then there was no ball. “That wasn’t fair, Kurokocchi!” the blonde yelled at the teal-haired teen who had back tipped Kise’s ball. Their redheaded captain caught the ball and passed the ball to his tanned teammate.

“I won’t let you, Mine-chin!” Murasakibara growled as he sprinted to Aomine’s team’s hoop.

“Not so easy!” Aomine yelled as he dribbled the ball behind the backboard and threw it in formlessly from behind so that the purple-haired giant could not block it. Murasakibara scowled as he picked up the ball and passed it to the star shooter of the Generation of Miracles.

“Shit!” Aomine cursed as he tried to jump in front of the star shooter to block the ball but Midorima had not lazed around during practice for nothing. He had practiced to shoot that ball faster so he did just that, shooting the ball before Aomine could block.

Midorima turned around to jog to his position but when he saw Akashi standing under his respective hoop, he knew what would happen next. He spun around but the ball flew past him like a cyclone.

Akashi caught it and dunked it in fast than Murasakibara could block him. “Uwaah! Kurokocchi! Not fair!” Kise wailed once more.

“Shut up and focus on the game, Kise!” Midorima warned. Before the game, both teams had a little strategy meeting of their own and Midorima’s team decided that Murasakibara was to be in charge of defense while the other two were offense.

However, Akashi had predicted their opponent’s move and thus, decided that all three of them would be on the offense to make the effect that Murasakibara would not do any good in defense and thus the other team would be all on offense. Then, they could commence with a shootout and Akashi was positive that his team would win a shootout.

Then again, it was not like predictions were always right. Midorima had specifically told Murasakibara not to get too agitated and to stay as defense. But Akashi had back-up plans. The three of them would then take turns being on the defense or on the offense, two on offense while one defense and by defense it meant stealing the ball which all three were good at.

Kuroko was passed the ball. He knew he was on offense. However, before he could throw the ball using his Phantom Shot, Murasakibara stood towering above him. The passing specialist knew that Murasakibara knew how to block his Phantom Shot and did the next thing he thought of.

Just as he believed, Akashi grabbed the ball which was thrown up in the air and dunked it in. Murasakibara growled angrily. He was the best at defense, but suddenly with three of their better offense players against him, he realized that he could not block many of their shots especially when they worked together.

Sighing, he realized what that teal-haired ‘kid’ was trying to teach them all along in their middle school days, why he quit basketball shortly after their nationals and why he was so determined to beat every single one of the Generation of Miracles with that newly formed Seirin team. They had all cast away teamwork.

Murasakibara yelled across the court to the blonde who was currently on offense. “Kise-chin! I need two people on defense now! Mido-chin can handle offense!” The blonde stared questioningly at the greenhead. Midorima understood Murasakibara’s intentions and signaled for Kise to join Murasakibara.

“Curse their brains. Tetsuya! Daiki! Plan C!” Akashi ordered. Both of them knew what Plan C was. It was very tiring but it would work. They were going to be all on offense when they had the ball but all defense once their opponent had the ball.

Midorima was just passed the ball. He knew he had to shoot it so he bent down and shot it. Just that he shot empty air. “What the—”

He spun around only to see Kuroko passing the ball to Akashi. “Damn!” he cursed before chasing after the teal-head.

Murasakibara towered over the second shortest member of the Generation of Miracles. Instead, the redhead threw the ball into the waiting hands of Aomine with Kise marking him.

With speed that few could catch up with, he passed it to Kuroko who by that time had caught up, but a hand whacked the ball down, caught it and shot it into the hoop.

“Argh!” Aomine grumbled. Akashi went to catch the ball and he threw it to Kuroko who then passed it to Aomine. Aomine, being blocked by Murasakibara, threw the ball back to Kuroko.

Kise had never played against Kuroko after that practice game. He may know how the Phantom Shot worked, but it did not mean that he knew how to block it. Going into what people would call an unusual stance, Kuroko shot the ball in with his palms. Kise’s eyes widened as the ball passed through his hands but a determined look crossed his features soon after.

The match went on until all the quarters had passed. Once Momoi had blown the whistle, everyone collapsed on the benches. Throughout the game save the first few minutes, everyone was so focused on the game that they had actually forgot about their scores.

They turned to stare at the scoreboard. “Oh. Kami (means ‘God’ in Japanese). We actually tied! THAT WAS SO AWESOME!” Kise cheered with glee. “Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! I actually expected to lose!” Midorima punched him on the head. Nigō had ran up to them, barking happily as if saying ‘Good job!’

“Say, Tetsu. That dog really looks like you! Your eyes are practically the same!” Aomine said, finally observing that obvious similarity being the Ahomine he was.

“Yeah, and he acts like Kurokocchi too!” Kise chirped.

Finally realizing that fact, Momoi looked happy, thinking that the dog liked her. Midorima glared at the dog’s owner. And Akashi gave Kuroko a very… unusual look, like he was silently saying, ‘Oh? That’s interesting.” Kuroko kept his face blank, though there was a slight blush on his cheeks, which only few would notice since his face was already pinkish because of the match. Kise, Aomine and Murasakibara who were oblivious to the situation, continued playing with the adorable dog.

Coughing to break the slight tension, Akashi checked the time on the wall clock. “Hm. It seems like we have finished our training plans for today. Since there is time, I will announce some arrangements and plans to you,” Akashi said. “Firstly, I have opened up one slot every Friday at four-thirty for a practice match with any school who wants to challenge us. It will be a ten-on-five game like yesterday. It will help us improve, I assure you.” The others nodded.

“On every Saturday, we will have some fairly intense (torturous) warm-ups in the morning. In the afternoon, it will be personal practice, honing your skills as you wish.” Again, everyone nodded, though some gulped at their captain’s casual way of describing their warm-ups.

When they were in the locker room to change up, Aomine whispered to Kise, “We are so going to get killed with Akashi’s ‘fairly intense warm-ups’. Fairly intense, my foot!” It really was not a whisper. Everyone could hear it.

Furthermore, Kise even replied, “I know right!” Kuroko, Midorima and Murasakibara silently prayed to the oblivious pair for their well-being. A pair of shiny red scissors cut through the air in the small space between Aomine and Kise’s heads and lodged itself in the lockers behind. It was amazing how Akashi could throw it in between the one-centimeter-gap.

Aomine and Kise gulped. “Well then, Daiki, Ryōta. Double training for both of you next week. Keep in mind that we were steadily increasing the number of each warm-ups we did.” A sly smile crossed the captain’s face. Both audibly gulped.

They would be on their way to Hell soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Akashi-kun had stayed over at Kuroko’s house on Saturday night too before taking a bullet train back to Kyoto on Sunday morning. Fortunately, Akashi did not pry further into the meaning behind what Kise had said about Nigō acting like Kuroko… yet.

Monday, as Kuroko had predicted, came a horde of barraging questions from the Seirin team.

“Kuroko! How was your practice? Did it go well?”

“I didn't know you could play so well!”

“Did the Generation of Miracles bully you?”

“What did you do during practice?”

Kuroko could only stand dumbly there, not sure what questions to answer, until the coach shouted, “SHUT UP! YOU GUYS WANT TO BE BETTER, I SEE, SO DOUBLE TRAINING FOR ALL OF YOU! Save Kuroko, that is!” An evil smirk came across her face since they were going to be doing pool training that day. Did Akashi-kun just say something similar on Friday? He could feel a sense of déjà vu.

At least the coach’s trainings were not as bad as an angry Akashi-kun’s.

The week went by well. On Friday, the team had gotten their official set of basketball uniforms, which were coincidentally very similar to Seirin’s basketball uniforms, being black with a red strip on each side. Apparently Akashi had also ordered their jerseys to have the same numbers on them like when they were in Teikō, so Kuroko was 15, Akashi-kun was 4, Murasakibara-kun was 5, Aomine-kun was 6, Midorima-kun was 7 and Kise-kun was 8.

That day, Seiho had wanted a match with them, which they gladly accepted. Their strategy was to place Murasakibara-kun as defense, Kuroko was to steal the ball, and the rest were on offense.

Seiho was the best in defense in Tokyo, and with them double-teaming someone, it was very difficult, and some would say impossible. However, the Generation of Miracles did not have the word ‘give up’ in their vocabulary list, so they instead, used their speed and agility to break through.

The Generation of Miracles had won slightly by a five-point difference, which was very close.

Then on Saturday, Aomine-kun and Kise-kun indeed had to do double training. Akashi-kun had increased the number of rounds to sixty, fortunately for them, so they ran one hundred and twenty rounds. For the other warm-ups, he increased them to sixty too, so double for them.

Aomine-kun and Kise-kun had literally lain on the floor, not wanting to move. Akashi-kun had then announced that it was lunch break and that supposedly broke them from their personal time with the floor. They leapt up almost immediately and went for lunch with the others.

So. Everything had seemed to be going well so far, right? But on the following week Thursday, Akashi-kun had texted us the school we were going to be up against on Friday. The rest seemed fine with the arrangement, since none of them except for Kuroko had versus that school before, so they did not know how dangerous that school was.

They were up against Kirisaki Daīchi, the school who caused Kuroko’s teammate, Kiyoshi Teppei, to have a severe knee injury that caused him to be unable to play basketball until he graduated from High School after the Winter Cup. Kiyoshi-sempai still seemed happy helping out in the Seirin team, but Kuroko knew that he was disappointed that he could not play basketball anymore for the time being.

It was all because of Kirisaki Daīchi. Kuroko was unnerved for the rest of Thursday and when Friday finally came, he quickly told the others about the infamous school.

“Kurokocchi! It won’t be so bad! We’re too fast for them, aren’t we?” Kise-kun reassured. “I know they foul play and stuff, but we just have to escape from them right?”

“No, they—”

“It’ll be fine, Tetsu! We’ll be careful!” Aomine said.

Midorima-kun had also scoffed while Murasakibara-kun continued eating his chips. “We’ll be careful, Tetsuya, and we will watch out for each other’s backs,” Akashi-kun said.

Seeing that no one would listen to his warnings, he sighed and continued warming up. He had the gut feel that something bad was going to happen. After nervously finishing up his rounds around the court, Kuroko followed the others back to the locker rooms to change into their new basketball jerseys.

Aomine-kun slapped Kuroko on the back. “Tetsu! We’ll beat them! No worries!” he had said. It was four-thirty when they finally walked out of the locker rooms to meet their opponents.

The teams lined up, five on one side and ten on the other. The referee, whom Akashi-kun had hired, commanded them to bow and let the game commence. As per how they had planned. Kise-kun was to sit on the benches for the first quarter to see if there were any moves worth copying.

Kuroko observed every single one of their players, noticing the five regulars who he had played against in the Winter Cup. He stared particularly at their captain who was also their coach. Hanamiya Makoto, one of the Uncrowned Kings, known for his underhanded foul play.

Hanamiya noticed Kuroko staring at him so he walked over and teased, “Oh? I recognize you. You’re from that Kiyoshi’s team, aren’t you! Well you know what? For making me lose the last time, I am going to break you this time and you’ll be garbage! How nice is that?” He stuck out his tongue.

Kuroko glared at him but chose to ignore him, walking back to his other teammates. He knew that he needed to be wary.

“LET THE GAME BEGIN!” the referee blew the whistle and let the ball fly up into the air.


	11. Chapter 11

Murasakibara, being the tallest player on the court currently, jumped up to catch the ball. He knew he would be fouled if he caught the ball before it reached its peak, so he waited for it to drop then whacked it to their Point Guard, Akashi.

They were planning to gain as many points as they could in the first quarter since they heard from Kuroko about their ‘spider’s web’ strategy, which would be set in place later in the game. Akashi threw it to Kuroko who whacked it to Aomine. Aomine threw the ball formlessly in.

“Oh? They are going for a fast-paced game, huh?” Hanamiya smirked. “Four of you mark Number 15 (Kuroko). We’re going to break him,” Hanamiya ordered. Three other regulars, save Kentarō Seto, and another player nodded and took their positions around Kuroko.

“Wha…? They are marking Tetsu with four people!” Aomine observed. With two more people marking Kuroko, that left Midorima and Murasakibara with one defender each. The four defenders surrounded Kuroko in a ring.

Kuroko tried to escape from his defenders but an elbow to his stomach caused him to stop and grit his teeth. They were doing it again, but this time it was to break him. Another elbowed his left arm. He knew bruises would start to appear soon. Furthermore, they were in a tight ring, so Kuroko could not drive past them.

“Curse them! Go all out on offense. Show that we can still beat them without Tetsuya and maybe they would unmark him,” Akashi commanded as he ran past his teammates. They nodded. As Akashi stole the ball, he passed it to Midorima who then wanted to jump and throw it, only to realize that his left foot was being stepped on by his defender. That was not allowed, but he was doing it in an angle so that the referee could not see.

Midorima glared at his defender but the defender just smirked back. Immediately, he threw it to Aomine who caught it easily and sped past both his defenders before dunking it in.

“Oh? So they will normally pass the ball to Number 6 (Aomine) to shoot the ball in, huh? Seto, you know what to do,” Hanamiya ordered. Seto nodded and grinned.

Seto was set to intercept any passes to Aomine. “Damn!” Aomine growled. Akashi realized what they were doing, so he threw the ball in himself.

“The Generation of Miracles can’t be brought down with such dirty tricks,” he muttered. True enough, even with Aomine being shut down from receiving any passes, he could still occasionally speed past his defenders. Akashi himself could also score points and Midorima had learnt a trick or two from Hyūga, Seirin’s captain. Before shooting the ball, he would step back once before throwing it in.

The point difference was twenty with the Generation of Miracles leading. There was one minute left to the first quarter. Hanamiya had just stolen the ball so he dribbled it to his hoop and did his signature shot, the Floater Shot. He jumped away from Murasakibara who was trying to block him and threw the ball in with one hand. As he landed on the ground, he glanced at the timer before grinning and snapping his fingers.

Akashi saw that signal. “Tetsuya!” he yelled as he spun around to run to his heavily marked teammate.

“Ah!” Kuroko’s scream and a resounding crack had everyone frozen on their spots. All heads turned towards the teal-haired player. The referee blew the whistle, signaling a referee time-out.

“Oops, I guess I accidentally knocked him over stepped on him by accident,” Hara Kazuya, the purple-haired gum-chewing player smirked nonchalantly.

“Damn you!” Akashi growled as he broke past Kuroko’s defenders. Kuroko was curled up into a ball and it looked like he was clutching his right wrist. “Tetsuya! Where does it hurt?” Akashi asked, voice softening.

Tears were streaming down the pale boy’s cheeks. “M… my ha… hand,” Kuroko managed to stutter. The pain in his wrist was just excruciating. It was unbearable. He tried not to whimper as strong arms came to embrace him.

“Tetsuya, focus on me only. Take a deep breath in.” Kuroko sucked in a shuddering breath. “Ok, now breathe out. We’re calling the ambulance. Can you let me see your hand?” Akashi asked. Kuroko hesitantly stretched out his hand.

Once Akashi saw it, he knew something was broken. Kuroko’s right wrist was hanging in an odd way and he could see the end of a bone poking through his skin. “It h… hurts,” Kuroko whispered, pain evident in his voice.

The rest of the team including Kise and Momoi had came running over. They saw Kuroko’s limp wrist and their anger immediately boiled. “Those bastards!” Aomine yelled. “I’ll smash them into a pulp for you, Tetsu!” Momoi’s had her hands covering her mouth. There was a sharp intake of breath from Murasakibara. Kise had covered his eyes and Midorima’s face paled.

Kuroko had tuned them all out. The pain was just clouding his mind. He only registered the strong arms that kept him still from the wrecking sobs. “Tetsuya, just stay strong for a while. It’ll be alright,” the soothing voice of Akashi said.

He then turned to the others. “I will go to the hospital with Tetsuya. Four of you, I will not accept anything lesser than tripling their scores, you understand?” Akashi barked. The others nodded in determination. Kirisaki Daīchi had hurt their friend. They would never forgive them.

 _They dared to hurt_ my _Tetsuya. They will pay._ Akashi thought as he carried a sobbing Tetsuya to the entrance of the stadium where the ambulance had arrived.

The paramedics had checked on Kuroko and said that he needed immediate medical attention for fear of his wound getting infected. They had given Kuroko some painkillers to help with the pain. Kuroko was groggy from the medicine so they let him sleep first before putting a splint at his wrist and wrapped gauze around it as a temporary cast.

When they reached Sasaki General Hospital, Akashi had insisted on following wherever Kuroko went and being an Akashi had a lot of influence so the doctors complied with his requests. The doctor had explained that the x-ray of Kuroko’s wrist showed that it had been fractured. It was an open Colles Fracture, which meant that the broken end of the bone tilted upwards and broke the skin. It would take one and a half months for it to completely heal.

The doctors had also tended to some of Kuroko’s bruises. As Akashi looked at the sleeping form of his current shadow, he cursed mentally to himself, “Damn it! How could I have not known that their aim was to injure Tetsuya! And I promised him that we would look after each other’s backs. Damn it!”

Kuroko suddenly stirred. He realized that his wrist was already in a blue cast to prevent it from moving around. He blearily blinked open his eyes. Kuroko squinted against the white light and almost immediately saw red hair and heterochromatic eyes. “… Akashi-kun?” he rasped.

“Yes, Tetsuya, it’s me. You’re alright now. Your right wrist was fractured and you will be wearing a cast for about one and a half months,” Akashi explained. He sighed and continued, “Tetsuya, I am so sorry. I promi—”

He was cut off by Kuroko’s smile. Kuroko interrupted, “No, it’s not your fault, Akashi-kun. I didn’t know what they were planning either. No one would have known.” Akashi was still a little shocked that someone actually interrupted him. Then again, it was Kuroko who was the most rebellious person he had ever met.

Akashi managed a small smile. “Still, I’m sorry. I will never let this happen again. The doctors said you would be discharged once you wake up after meeting the doctor. They also called up your parents and they would be here anytime now.” Kuroko wanted to thank Akashi but they were interrupted by Akashi’s ringing phone.

“Yes?” Akashi asked irritatedly. “Yes, he just woke up. He will be wearing a cast for a month and a half.” There was a pause. “Good job.” Another pause. “No, you will not have to. He’s going home now.” Then Akashi put down the phone.

Kuroko looked questioningly at Akashi. “It was Daiki. They asked how you were. Apparently, they helped you thrash the other team as pay back by quadrupling their score 184-46.”

Kuroko stared wide-eyed at Akashi. “What?” Akashi asked.

“Nothing. I’ll tell you when we get home. I want to go home,” Kuroko said, shaking his head.

“Fine. You sound like a child throwing a tantrum. Alright, let’s go,” Akashi said as he helped Kuroko off the bed and lead him to the doctor’s room. Akashi knocked on the door and the doctor came out to greet them.

“Kuroko-san, are you feeling alright?” the doctor asked. Kuroko nodded. “Alright. Just some instructions to you: Try not to use your right hand, no sports…” The doctor droned on for about five more minutes before letting the duo walk out of the hospital.

They were greeted by a silver car and Kuroko’s parents came rushing out, checking over their son. Akashi had apologized to the couple but they had waved it off, saying that it was not his fault. Akashi still felt guilty and said that he would go back to his house in Kyoto but was instead dragged into the car with Kuroko and his parents drove them home.


	12. Chapter 12

“Tetsuya! How’s your hand? What happened?” the teal-headed woman practically shouted at her son once they were on their way back to the Kurokos’. Tetsuya was a little shocked at the sudden ‘outburst’, so Akashi answered instead.

“We had a practice match against Kirisaki Daīchi and one of their members hurt Tetsuya. It was my fault for not knowing what they would do to him. I promise this will never happen again, Kuroko-san,” Akashi replied.

“No, no, no! It isn’t your fault, Akashi-kun. We must thank you for taking care of Tetsuya while we rushed back from work!” the brunette thanked. Akashi shook his head, but before he could rebut, the man continued, “Tetsuya, your mother and I are going for a business trip for a week tomorrow. Do you want us to cancel it?”

“There is no need. I think I can take care of myself,” Tetsuya replied.

“I’ll stay with Tetsuya while he is recuperating then. I can arrange for my homework to be sent to me here in Tokyo, so no worries. And meanwhile, I can make sure he eats properly,” Akashi suggested. Tetsuya’s eyes widened and Akashi could tell that he was going to refuse, so he added, “I think it would be the best compromise.”

His parents both heaved a sigh of relief. “Really? Thank you so much, Akashi-kun!” Mrs. Kuroko thanked happily just as they turned the corner into the front porch of the house. “Ah, Tetsuya, for being so brave, I will make you a vanilla shake later! But firstly, you both should go change up.”

Akashi followed Tetsuya up the stairs and before he could use his right hand to open the door, Akashi pushed it open for him and warned, “Left hand. Use your left hand instead, remember?” Tetsuya apologized.

The fluffy companion immediately jumped onto its owner, yapping enthusiastically his feet gleefully. “Nigō! I missed you so much!” Tetsuya reached down to ruffle his fur.

Akashi grabbed his arm. “Left.” Tetsuya nodded, embarrassed, and used his left hand instead. Seeing the blue cast on its owner’s wrist, the dog looked sad and licked Tetsuya’s left hand instead. “Such irony, Tetsuya. I am going to be your shadow for now until you are completely healed. Do you need help changing?” Akashi asked.

“No,” Tetsuya replied and proceeded to grab a shirt and pants from his closet and started to change. Well, it was not changing, since he could not get his shirt off without using his right hand.

Sighing, Akashi helped him out of his existing shirt and into his new one and did the same for his pants. “Don’t be such a stubborn kid, Tetsuya. If you need help, just ask,” Akashi reprimanded. “Let’s go down for dinner, then you can tell me what you wanted to tell me.” Tetsuya nodded and the both went down to be greeted by a mixture of smells.

Akashi could smell vanilla and assumed it was from the vanilla milkshake that Tetsuya’s mother had promised to make, and there was a very familiar smell. It was his favourite food, tofu soup.

As both boys walked down the steps, Tetsuya’s mother elatedly said, “Tetsuya! I made your favourite vanilla milkshake! And Akashi-kun, Tetsuya said that you like tofu soup so we made some for you as thanks!”

Akashi raised an eyebrow at Tetsuya. “Uh, Momoi told me that before…” Tetsuya mumbled, answering Akashi’s silent question. They sat down around the table and this time, the talk was about Tetsuya’s wrist. Akashi also had to occasionally remind his teal-haired friend not to use his right hand.

When they were done, Tetsuya’s parents ordered the two younger boys to go bathe and then sleep, so they went back to Tetsuya’s room. “Akashi-kun… Why didn’t you send Momoi-san with me? Four people against ten is very risky,” Tetsuya started the conversation as they arrived in his room.

“Hm? You were clutching onto my shirt so tightly and it seemed like you didn’t want me to leave you, so I followed you to the hospital,” Akashi replied. “Furthermore, it was good to give them pressure occasionally. Daiki and Atsushi went into the zone. Momoi messaged me just now about their progress.”

“Oh… I am very sorry about making you go to the hospital with me, Akashi-kun,” Tetsuya apologized, a faint blush threatening to form on his pale cheeks. “But, isn’t quadrupling their score a little harsh? Kirisaki Daīchi only became so foul because they wanted to beat us. Hanamiya-san told me.”

“Harsh? But we beat them fair and square, and they had twice the number of people playing against us,” Akashi replied, finding his clothes in his basketball bag. He would have to arrange for his clothes and other items needed for his stay here to be transported to Tetsuya’s house.

“If you beat them fair and square, it would not have been a problem, but you guys mock your opponents.” Akashi was shocked. Did that have such a big effect on his opponents when he said that they were losers? Were they affected when he said that they should just give up? Tetsuya continued, “Perhaps you have lost too few times to understand but… in Seirin, Hyūga-sempai and Kiyoshi-sempai wanted to quit basketball after their middle school match with us. And Ogiwara-kun from Meiko Junior High. Did you know he was my childhood friend and after their match with us, he totally quit basketball?”

Again, Akashi was a little taken aback. At that time, Akashi taunted Ogiwara Shigehiro that his school was weak and even set the score 111-11 in their match against them. Apparently, they thought it was fun to do that. Akashi muttered, “I… did not know. I’m sorry, Tetsuya.” He was still in shock but he knew he had to apologize to the people he had hurt unintentionally. He would also have to tell the others.

“It’s alright. I was just ranting. You can igno—”

“No, it’s not alright. I can’t believe I did not know about this all these while.” Akashi interrupted. “Tetsuya… Do you think your friend would forgive me if I apologize to him?”

“Wha…?” Tetsuya looked a little taken aback. He thought for a little while. “I guess I can text him to see when he is free… But, thank you, Akashi-kun.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I should be the one thanking you,” Akashi said, feeling a little embarrassed. “Come on. We have to go bathe and since you can’t wet your cast, Let’s wrap it up with a plastic bag.”

“What? No! I can just stick my hand out. I’d look ridiculous with a wrapped hand!” Tetsuya rebutted.

“Your hand would be tired. Wrap it up. You’d look equally retarded sticking your hand out of the shower,” Akashi commented.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes. I don’t want your wound to be infected.”

“No.”

“Yes, or I’ll prevent you from having milkshakes for the rest of the week.”

“Fine!” Tetsuya finally gave up as Akashi smirked. Tetsuya was so fun to tease. Akashi then proceeded to grab a plastic bag and some rubber bands to wrap up Tetsuya’s wrist.

“Shout if you need help. I’ll be in your room,” Akashi replied while Tetsuya walked into the bathroom. Akashi took out his phone to check his mail. There were a few things he had to clear up. Firstly, they needed reserves and he was waiting for the Ministry of Sports to reply if he could choose the reserves. Then they needed a coach, which again he had asked the Ministry of Sports if they could choose their own coach.

He checked his mail. They allowed both since their current basketball team members were retiring and they believed that we would work better with our own chosen coach and reserves. He saw another unread mail.

Their coach could make it to training tomorrow, it seems. The rest of the team would get such a big surprise at meeting their new coach: Kōzō Shirogane.


	13. Chapter 13

** The Generation of Miracles Reincarnated **

Chapter 13

“SHIROGANE-KANTOKU?” everyone yelled in unison upon seeing the grey-haired, well-dressed man who was in his forties walking into the locker room doors. Save Akashi though. He was smirking.

Nigō padded up to Teikō’s former basketball coach and yapped happily at the man. He smiled kindly and picked up the fluffy bunch of fur and Nigō happily licked his face.

Recovering from the shock first, Kise pointed at the man and stuttered, “K-kantoku! Aren’t you s-supposed to b-be in the hospital?” Shirogane Kōzō was Teikō’s first-string coach but he suddenly fell ill after the Generation of Miracles’ second championships and was replaced by Sanada.

Midorima pushed up his spectacles. As calmly as he could after almost receiving a heart attack from seeing his former coach, he said, “Kise! It is rude to point fingers! Kantoku, are you well?”

“Ahaha! Yes, I’m fine now thanks to treatments and rehabilitation! I was about to live a happy and carefree life until one day, Akashi here sent me an email to be your coach! How nice was that?” Shirogane laughed. Truth be told, most of them were silently cursing said redhead.

They would die from Shirogane’s training regiment. Everyone had thought that this aging man was a kind and serene coach on first glance, but those who he trained knew he was just plain ruthless. If Akashi’s training regiment was bad enough, this coach’s ones were worse. He had even made the first-string do warm-ups for the whole practice before. It was a horrendous three hundred of each.

At the end of the practice, they could still remember everyone lying on the court for about half an hour more before being able to move. Kuroko had vomited numerous times during that practice. Even the mighty Akashi who had tons of stamina had lain on the court panting for about ten minutes before going to hit the showers.

Apparently Akashi seemed to like them experiencing Hell all over again since he had even personally asked Shirogane to be their coach. Everyone groaned. They would interrogate their captain later.

“E-eh! Kurokocchi! That’s not fair!” Kise wailed.

Shirogane raised an eyebrow to find the youngest member of the Generation of Miracles only to see that he had a blue cast on his right wrist. “What happened to you, Kuroko?” he asked.

“We were against Kirisaki Daīchi yesterday and one of their members stepped on my wrist and it got fractured,” Kuroko replied with a blank face. The wound still throbbed occasionally but it was bearable now. Unfortunately, he had to try and resist the itchiness of the cast, which, on the other hand, was unbearable.

“Oh. Recover fast then! We need you on the court!” Shirogane gave Kuroko a smile. Most translated that smile as: Recover fast and then I can torture you to increase your oh-so-bad stamina! Kuroko shuddered internally but nodded nonetheless. “It’s going to be my first time in a long time training you guys, so I’ll just be watching today. When your reserves come next Friday, then I’ll start the training!”

“Yes!” everyone internally cheered.

“Wait, wait, wait. We have reserves?” Aomine asked stupidly.

That earned him a whack from Momoi. “Duh! The team will need twelve people! We’ve only got six here! Akashi-kun, who are our reserves?”

Akashi smirked and replied, “You’ll see. Now, get to practice. We are going to steadily increase each warm-up by five each time.” Obediently, everyone followed their captain to the courts to run, leaving Momoi, Shirogane and Kuroko to watch them.

“They seem to be working together better than when I left you guys,” Shirogane observed, scratching his beard.

“Yeah! And it’s thanks to Tetsu-kun!” Momoi chirped happily. “He beat them all with teamwork and now each one of them loves basketball more than anything, right Tetsu-kun?” Kuroko just blushed at the compliment.

“Oh? Then I must thank you, Kuroko! When I left, I feared that those five would become arrogant and stuff, but you changed them back! I guess including you on the team really helped!” Shirogane grinned. He continued looking at his team. Most of them had just finished their runs around the court and were lying down on the floor to catch their breaths.

Shirogane started chuckling and said, “All of your stamina has decreased by so much! Friday’s warm-ups shall be for stamina!” Everyone’s jaw dropped. Stamina training was the worst. If they could choose between Akashi and Shirogane to put together their training regimen, it would most certainly be Akashi. Nigō happily yapped, looking like he wanted them to experience Hell.

“Tetsu! Don’t tell me you are thinking the exact same thing as your doppelganger!” Aomine yelled.

“Eh? Doppelganger?” Shirogane asked, staring at Nigō.

“Yeah! Kuro-chin and Nigō look exactly the same! Especially the eyes!” Murasakibara piped up. “Aka-chin~ I want my snacks!”

“No,” came the stoic reply. “After the warm-ups we will be going for lunch, so bear with it.” Murasakibara pouted as Akashi smirked at the ‘baby’ of the Generation of Miracles. As Kuroko had put it, he really was a kid with a lose screw in everything other than basketball.

The team finished up with their torturous warm-ups and then proceeded to go for lunch. “Can we go to a fast food restaurant?” Murasakibara asked.

“No. It’s unhealthy and besides, you have been eating chips often enough,” Akashi said.

“Oh! Here comes Akashi’s Mother Personality!” Aomine exclaimed.

“Kantoku, double training for Daiki on Friday,” Akashi requested. The said coach smiled and nodded his head. Aomine, on the other hand, was gravely regretting his choice of teasing his captain.

They decided on going to a nearby ramen stall. While walking there, everyone was chatting happily with each other, Kise and Momoi trying to cheer up Aomine. “Akashi-kun,” Kuroko said, catching his captain’s attention.

“Yes?” he asked.

“I’m sorry that I can’t participate in practice anymore for the month and a half ahead. I was just thinking that it would be nice if there were two phantoms on court…” The last sentence was said as more of a mumble but Akashi heard it nevertheless.

“Mm, yeah that would be nice,” Akashi replied. He wondered if Kuroko already knew some of the reserve players he was going to pick as there was another phantom waiting to play.

Unbeknownst to the captain, Kuroko did not know. Instead, he was thinking about how he could improve on his misdirection once his wrist heals. During practice while looking at them train had given Kuroko an idea as to a new technique he could master.

The day went on smoothly ahead and at night, Kuroko and Akashi sent the former’s parents off to their business trip. Akashi had made a healthy dinner for Kuroko and his grandmother and gave Kuroko an especially big (to him) portion to eat. His reason was that Kuroko was to skinny and ordered him to eat everything on the plate.

After dinner, Akashi had helped Kuroko to try and use his left hand to write. It was hilarious as the first few times, Kuroko’s handwriting was totally illegible. Though after a night of practice, Akashi could at least read some of what he wrote. The weekend passed by quickly.


	14. Chapter 14

The house phone rang. The redhead, who was currently munching on an apple from the kitchen, picked up the phone, which was just beside him.

“Hello? Who is this?” he said, swallowing down the last bit of apple.

“Akashi-kun? It’s recess now,” Tetsuya informed, showing that he was not sneaking to call him in class.

“Mm and?”

“Ogiwara-kun had just texted me. He asked if he could meet us at seven at the street ball court near Seirin. Is that alright?”

Akashi checked his schedule on his phone. “Sure. I have nothing on today.” With that, the caller hung up. Akashi had moved in with Tetsuya for three days already, making that day a Tuesday. Akashi had already made the necessary arrangements for his school materials and personal belongings to be transported to Tetsuya’s house.

Akashi had informed his father by call and he was, for no other better word, pissed. He had wanted Akashi to attend school and basketball practice personally as ‘grades will affect his future careers and he should focus on them’ and ‘winning is everything and if he does not attend basketball practice, he’s skills would be unpolished’ blah blah blah. After that, Akashi had become angry himself so he had just told his father that he would be staying here in Tokyo because his friend had broken his wrist and then hung up.

Sighing, Akashi had texted him later saying sorry for his rude behavior. His father had not replied and assumed that he was angry but knew that Akashi would not be swayed. He was not going to let his father dictate his whole life.

That morning, he had, as usual, helped Tetsuya prepare for school and had made him eat a normal person’s portion for breakfast. Then he finished his previous day’s worth of homework before having a conference call with some businessmen. Even though he was still a freshman in high school, he had already taken over some parts of his father’s business.

After finishing up the apple, he went back up to Tetsuya’s room where a very hyper Nigō was waiting. Sitting on the tatami mat on the floor, he scratched the dog behind its ears and thought about what to say to Tetsuya’s childhood friend later in the day.

“Tetsuya,” the captain greeted as his teal-haired friend and teammate walked into the street ball court and sat on the bench beside him. Tetsuya nodded back in reply and gave him a smile. He seemed to be excited but yet afraid to meet his childhood friend.

Well who would not? They must have been close but then their friendship was suddenly broken and being the kind boy he was, Tetsuya would have blamed himself. But Akashi knew it was all he’s fault that caused their friendship to shatter just like that.

Just then, a teen with orange hair walked into the street ball court. “Tetsu! Long time no see! I hope your hand is alright. You told me what happened just now,” the orange-head, presumably Ogiwara Shigehiro, chirped happily. He looked towards the captain and his mood darkened. “You must be Akashi Seijūrō, huh? The one who destroyed Tetsu’s and my friendship?”

“Ogiwara—”

“Yes, you are right, Ogiwara-kun. I have finally realized how stupid I was that time and I hope that you would forgive me and my team for our wrong doings,” Akashi interrupted Kuroko’s warning to his friend.

Ogiwara frowned. “Hm… Let me see. You practically pulverize everyone who plays against you and furthermore, you freaking toy with them! And now after a year you finally realize your three-year’s worth of mistakes and by one line, expect me to forgive you? Well, that so makes sense doesn’t it?” Ogiwara said sarcastically.

Akashi had expected the teen to rebut like that. Just then, greetings came from the entrance to the court.

“Yo, Akashi! Tetsu!”

“Kurokocchi! Akashicchi!”

“Aka-chin, Kuro-chin.”

“Akashi, Kuroko.”

The angered orange-haired teen raised an eyebrow. “Ogiwara-kun, my former teammates are here to apologize too. I do not care if you forgive me or not, but please forgive my teammates. I am their captain and I should take the responsibility,” Akashi said. Surprising everybody, Akashi bowed down at waist level to the teenager before him.

Shintarō, seeing his captain bow down, did the same too, pressing the ace and the copycat of the team down by the heads to bow. Atsushi did the same too.

“Wha… What?” Ogiwara seemed shocked. Apparently he had not expected the famed but arrogant team of basketball players to actually bow down to him. “Wait, wait, wait. Get up! I was supposed to rant out all my anger at you guys and you guys aren’t listening to my rant but are apologizing! Tetsu, please help me!” Ogiwara panicked.

“Ogiwara-kun. Please forgive my friends. It is my fau—”

“No, Tetsuya. It is mine. So what is your decision, Ogiwara-kun?” Akashi said as he rose from his bow.

“Uh… Uhhh. If Tetsu says so… Uh I still think you guys are jerks, but Tetsu said so, so yeah. I’ll forgive you guys. Just this once. You guys are still the worst of jerks though. Arrogant much. Let’s start again. Nice to meet you! My name is Ogiwara Shigehiro, Shige for short!” Ogiwara smiled.

Akashi smiled as he shook Shige’s outstretched hand. Instead of a normal handshake, Shige had purposely gripped Akashi’s hand really hard. “Hmpf, want to compete?” Akashi smirked, doing the same. Meanwhile, the rest at the side were staring at them, sweat-dropping at their childishness.

“Ogiwara-kun, Akashi-kun. It’s getting late. Shall we go eat dinner?” Tetsuya asked, breaking up the two’s childish competition.

Akashi nodded. Shige looked at Tetsuya with pleading eyes. “Can we go to Maji Burger? Pleeeeeaaaaseeee?”

“Akashi-kun?” Tetsuya asked his diet-checker.

Scoffing, Akashi said, “Fine. This once. No more for the next week though. Plus you have to get a burger along with your milkshake.” Tetsuya pouted but Akashi could tell that the teal-haired boy was ecstatic to be able to finally get a taste of his vanilla milkshake.

Chatting lightly while the group walked to the fast food restaurant, Shige had grinned at Tetsuya, saying, “I see you still have the same old craving for vanilla milkshake, huh.”

Akashi was glad. Tetsuya’s friendship with Shige was finally repaired after a year of separation.


	15. Chapter 15

As the members of the Olympic team were going to start their warm-ups in the large stadium on a Friday afternoon, the doors to the stadium swung open forcefully.

“Shor—”

Akashi raised his eyebrows.

“I mean Akashi! Why did you just inform me to come here like FIVE MINUTES AGO?” a very familiar redhead exploded. Behind him were four other panting people.

“Mm? I arranged it so that you all would be here at the same time,” Akashi replied.

“Ahh! This is just like our Sei-chan!” Mibuchi Reo panted. Focusing on the players, one could see the ace of Seirin High, Kagami Taiga, the three Uncrowned Kings from Rakuzan High and a very familiar face only to the members from Teiko.

“E-eh?! Nijimuracchi!” Kise yelled, waving his hands wildly at Teiko’s former captain before Akashi. Kise did not know the dark-haired male well as he had passed over his captaincy to Akashi when Kise had just joined.

“Hey, long time no see, juniors!” Nijimura greeted, hands on his knees as he panted.

“Akashi-kun! Weren’t there supposed to be six other members?” Momoi, observant as always, asked while the others greeted the new members of the team.

Kuroko, who was reading a book that he brought, raised his head up to see the new members. “Ah, Mayuzumi-san, long time no see,” the teal-haired player greeted. That earned a lot of exclamations form the group, some including his existing teammates.

“Kuroko-sempai,” Rakuzan’s phantom man greeted.

“Sempai?” Kuroko repeated.

Mayuzumi nodded, both ignoring the gasps and accusations of scaring them to death, which was a normal occurrence to the two phantoms. “You beat me in the Winter Cup. I still have a lot to learn,” Mayuzumi explained. He had been so arrogant during the Winter Cup that he could beat the old phantom, seeing as he could shoot normal shots and had more stamina. However, Kuroko had surpassed him by overwriting his invisibility.

“Ah! New members! Just in time for training!” Shirogane cheered. The Generation of Miracles all shuddered at his inconspicuous threat.

Akashi also announced, “Today there will be no practice match with another school. We shall have a practice match between our reserves and our main team, five-on-six.” Everyone jaw dropped. No wonder Akashi did not text them their opponent the previous day.

Shirogane clapped his hands together. “But first, we have our warm-ups! One hundred laps around the court, one hundred lunges, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred…” he ranted on and on.

“Akashiiii! That’s worse than your training!” Hayama Kotarō yelled in exasperation. An object with red handles and two shiny blades snapped in front of Hayama. “Eek!” he flinched back. The rest just sweat-dropped.

“I told you not to give Akashicchi your scissors, Midorimacchi!” Kise complained, this time wary to say it softly so that the redhead would not hear him.

“Okay! Enough talk! Go run your laps!” Shirogane ordered. “Momoi, please time each of them.” Sighing as they went, the new Olympic team started their run with a slow jog.

“Man! I thought we’d get a welcome party!” the muscle gorilla of Rakuzan, Nebuya Eikichi, grumbled. He received a pat on the back from Aomine. The new members would not get their jerseys until a later date.

Kuroko sat on the bench, mid watching them run and mid reading his book. It was a book he had found at the school’s library during recess about physics. When his wrist heals, he would want to work on this new idea straight away. So far, the book was of no help at all.

Shirogane peeked at Kuroko’s book. “Oh? Why are you reading this? I thought you preferred to read literature works,” he observed.

Kuroko nodded. “Yes, but I wanted to work on a new technique once my wrist heals.” Shirogane raised an eyebrow but did not ask further as the teal-haired boy continued with his book.

Watching the other eleven members run, he noticed that his existing members were doing fine, the new members including Nijimura were lagging slightly. He made a mental note to increase his new members’ training regiment.

Meanwhile, Momoi passed the coach information on every player. “Interesting…” he thought as he read through the pages. It seemed like every single on of the players all had a special ability. This time, there would even be two phantoms!

After what seemed like hours of torture to the running members, they collapsed on the court heaving and panting. “Oh, my, gosh! Sei-chan!” Mibuchi Reo tried to complain but he was panting too hard to even continue.

Kagami Taiga looked ready to kill the coach but he was too tired to even move an inch. Then they heard the coach laugh heartily. “Ahahahaha! It seems like our new members need more stamina training! I’ll add that to tomorrow’s list then! Five minutes to rest and up for the next warm-up!” Nebuya almost cursed at that but received a glare from Akashi, which made him stop.

The training went on for a few torturing hours. When they were finally finished, everyone just did not have the energy to even talk. Momoi had given them five bottles of water each and most had finished them all. Fortunately, Shirogane allowed them to have a half-an-hour break before their match in which Kuroko went around giving out towels.

None of them had even bothered to move for the whole half an hour.

Meanwhile, Shirogane had set up the other court for their game later since the court that they were lying on would be covered in sweat. He shouted for them to get up. Everyone groaned in protest but did as they were told, for fear of their captain or coach increasing their training.

Shirogane announced, “Fifteen minutes to discuss strategies. Momoi will pass you information on members of the other team. Go to the locker rooms and be out in fifteen minutes.” They did as they were told after they got some papers on the other team’s members form Momoi.

Akashi would be captain of the team of five while Nijimura was voted (since he was former captain of Teikō) to be captain of the other team. The match was going to begin.


	16. Chapter 16

The whistle blew. Kagami and Murasakibara leapt up into the air to snatch the ball. Everyone had expected that the much taller Murasakibara would have caught the ball, but instead, little did the others know, due to practicing his jumping height everyday, Kagami leapt higher in the air and whacked the ball down to Nijimura.

Team Two (Nijimura’s) had an advantage. They had six members on court while the other team only had five. This could leave one player available without being marked if it was man-to-man. In the fifteen minutes given, they had agreed that Mayuzumi, their phantom, would be left to steal the ball whenever possible.

However, they will have a lot of difficulties with their opponent team. Aomine could easily break past any of his defenders, Kise could copy anyone, Murasakibara was this unbreakable defense, Midorima the unstoppable shooter. Then there was Akashi, who was captain of two-thirds of their current team. Akashi would be accustomed to Mayuzumi’s presence plus he could predict any of their moves.

But it was not like Nijimura did not improve. Dribbling the ball, he drove past Midorima. In Teikō, he was a small forward, being known for his powerful drive and his lightning fast passes to a freeman, Nijimura dribbled it to his basket. He was about to shoot the ball into the hoop when Murasakibara was right in front of him.

Immediately changing his stance, Nijimura threw it to Mayuzumi who then whacked it to Mibuchi. Just that Mibuchi did not receive the ball. Red flashed across their vision as Team One’s captain stole the ball that he had predicted would be passed to Mibuchi.

Akashi knew that Nijimura was the one that was supposed to be marking him but since he was further away, Akashi had no mark currently. He was about halfway across the court when he saw a darker red in front of me.

Smirking, Akashi did an ankle break on Kagami before dribbling the ball nearer to their own basket. Being nearest to Akashi, Nebuya had switched marks to mark Akashi. Nebuya was part of Akashi’s team in Rakuzan, so he knew that if he stayed on the spot until Akashi drove past him, he could not use his ankle break on him.

Akashi grabbed the ball. He would have to pass it to someone. Eyes flickering to his teammates, he saw Aomine break past his defenders so Akashi passed it to him. Aomine caught the ball before anyone could steal it and shot the ball in just as Hayama jumped to block.

Hayama started with the ball. He was using four fingers as he dribbled past Aomine, shocking him as he was known for his speed and agility. Hayama smirked as he continued and passed the ball to Mibuchi who was already in position.

Mibuchi grabbed the ball just as Akashi appeared in front of him. Apparently, Akashi had switched marks and this was bad, as Akashi knew how to defend against most of his shots. However, Akashi was shorter than Mibuchi so if he used Oblivion, Akashi would no doubt be unable to block the shot.

He did just that, and expected, Akashi did not squat in time. Mibuchi jumped, only to see a larger and taller body in front of him. He had totally forgot that the big giant of the Generation of Miracles was tall and fast. Murasakibara whacked the ball down to Akashi.

Akashi then dribbled the ball back to the middle and passed it to Kise as Nijimura came to mark him. Kagami was now marking Kise. Just as he was about to break past Kagami, someone stole the ball. He swiveled around only to see a blur of gray hair. Mayuzumi had stolen the ball.

He dribbled the ball and passed it to Nijimura who then ran back to the hoop, shooting the ball in. Akashi started with the ball then and passed it to Midorima who shot the ball in immediately.

Their match went on with each team catching up with the other every time the other team’s points were higher. However, in the second half, Kagami went into the zone, making the score difference between the two teams increase to six.

“Akashi!” Aomine yelled as Kagami scored another basket, being almost as fast as Aomine. Aomine was getting permission to go into the zone so he could face of the brawny redhead.

Akashi shook his head. He wanted them to try and pressure themselves in the scenario that Aomine, Murasakibara and Akashi were unable to enter the zone. Aomine gritted his teeth as he changed marks with Kise to go one-on-one with Kagami.

Furthermore, Kagami also had some of those animal instincts, which allowed him to predict movements to a certain extent by instinct. But Aomine’s were better. Akashi had started with the ball and passed it to Aomine.

Using his street ball style again, he drove past Kagami who scrunched his face up in anger. Behind Kagami was Hayama. Playing street ball against this lightning dribbler was worse as Hayama had perfect control over his animal instincts.

Aomine instead threw the ball over to Kise. Kagami, however, was marking Kise, and Mayuzumi was about to back-tip the ball in Kise’s hands. Kise flung the ball to Midorima since Mayuzumi was not there to intercept the. Quickly, Midorima shot a three-pointer before Kagami could come to intercept the shot.

Now Kagami was angered, which was bad considering the more enraged he was, the higher he would try to jump. Nijimura started with the ball and passed it to Hayama who threw it to Nebuya. The muscle gorilla gleefully dunked it in with so much power that Murasakibara could not block.

Akashi, being their point guard, started with the ball again. Without Kuroko, it really was difficult to sneak passes nearer to the basket. Again, he flung it to Midorima. Midorima was about to jump and shoot the ball when Kagami appeared right in front of him. Jumping, Midorima instead passed the ball to Kise who was near him.

Kise broke past his defenders and dunked the ball in instead. Utilizing Midorima’s three-pointers, the scores were close once again. The whistle blew to signal the end of the third quarter.

“Akashicchi! Kagamicchi is in the zone!” Kise wailed.

“Stop stating the obvious, Ryōta. Work together. If it was one-on-two against him and Mayuzumi, I’d be nearly impossible. Work together and stay within passing distance no matter what. Pass to Shintarō when Kagami and Mayuzumi are further away.” With that, Akashi sat down on the bench with the rest and finished up a bottle of water.

The whistle blew again for the start of the fourth quarter. This time, they went two-on-two against Kagami and Mayuzumi. It was so much easier without having to keep watch on two people and one of them was practically invisible. They had gotten somewhat used to his presence but whenever they were focused on someone else, it was hard to keep track of where Mayuzumi was.

However, the other team sure knew how to adapt quickly. They would lure the second player away so that it was one-on-two again. Midorima was gritting his teeth as Kagami always seemed to be able to intercept his shots. Akashi would never tolerate defeat even if they were at a disadvantage. Since Akashi only told Aomine and Murasakibara that they could not enter the zone, he knew what Akashi had wanted Kise and himself to do: to enter the zone.

He slowed his breath and concentrated. It was time he tried it too since half of the team could already enter the zone.

Everyone’s eyes widened as they saw green sparks.


	17. Chapter 17

Everyone’s jaws dropped while Akashi was smirking. That was also another reason why he had ordered Aomine and Murasakibara not to enter the zone. He wanted to pressure the other two so that they could possibly enter the zone and it worked for Midorima, at least.

Akashi stole the ball from Nijimura again, earning a growl from his former captain. He passed the ball to the green-haired star shooter or the Generation of Miracles, wondering how much more will he improve once he is in the zone. Midorima caught the ball with lightning fast speed. It was also interesting as Kagami was still in the zone but he will be out of it in a few more seconds.

Midorima held the ball in a triple threat position. Then, with a quick fling, the ball went flying into the hoop in a high arc with such speed that no one could react. Midorima did not even jump to shoot the ball in. Everyone in Midorima’s team cheered. Now it was going to be fun.

Kagami cursed loudly as he was no longer in the zone. Meanwhile, the others were passing the ball to Midorima as many times as possible. Midorima in the zone was a whole different thing all together. Even though he was left handed, he could throw the ball with his right hand, AND without needing to jump, so jumping to block his shots was futile. Furthermore, he could do it from any position.

For example, while he was dribbling the ball and running, he could just throw it and not even look at the hoop while the ball just dropped in. That was one of the specialties of being in the zone: one would acquire something similar to the hawk-eye. This was already the fourth quarter, so Kagami would not be able to enter the zone so fast again.

Throughout the fourth quarter, Midorima was like this shooting machine. Once the ball was passed to him, Midorima would just throw it in if no one was marking him, or dribbling it further then shoot it with such speed that even Kagami could not block it.

Momoi, who was sitting on the bench, was muttering, “Awesome… If everyone in the team could go into the zone at anytime they wished, then we would be unbeatable!” It would be a lot of work though. So far only Akashi and Aomine were able to do so at anytime, including Kagami who when pressured, could enter the zone too.

Kuroko had stopped reading his book a while ago to observe his teammate who was in the zone. Midorima did obtain a higher speed and agility and further, his shooting speed increased with the ability to shoot three-pointers while even running. His accuracy even increased (not that his shots missed other than when against Kagami) so that when the ball entered the hoop, it looked like a teardrop and not even swishing the net. The ball just went vertically in.

Shirogane, who was observing every player, had his mouth agape. Midorima was already good before, but this? He had never thought that Midorima’s shooting could upgrade by another level. So far, Kagami could not block a single of Midorima’s shots ever since he had gone into the zone.

Aomine and Kise grumbled about not having the chance to shoot, but they knew Midorima would have also wanted to try out his abilities when he was in the zone. However, Midorima had to stop after being in the zone for five minutes. He was panting really hard, so Akashi told him to be benched first and thanks to Midorima, their point difference were quite wide so they would be able to handle the match.

Momoi and Kuroko went to pass him a bottle of water and a cloth respectively. Meanwhile, the current team of four was trying their best to keep up with the game since six-to-four was a little overwhelming considered the six they were up against had about the same standard as the Generation of Miracles.

The other team was going to utilize the remaining time until the end of the match to catch up in the point difference as a result of Midorima in the zone. If he had continued to be in the zone until the end of the match, the other team would have no doubt doubled their scores in no time. Fortunately for them, Midorima was experiencing the zone for the first time and was not used to the exhaustion.

The battle went on fiercely until the sound of the whistle stopped them. Both teams looked towards the scoreboard. It was a very close match but Team One won by ten points. Both teams had shook hands and bowed, then walked back to their respective locker rooms.

“Shintarō, what is your trigger?” Akashi asked the exhausted greenhead on the way to their changing rooms. Akashi needed to know each of his teammates’ triggers if they wanted to strategize for games.

Midorima looked slightly shocked at the sudden question. "I do not really know… Perhaps it was to overcome an opponent who I would not be able to overpower."Midorima himself was not too sure but he just had this urge to beat Kagami’s jumping power.

Akashi nodded in approval before walking to keep pace beside Kuroko. Midorima was lagging behind a little, still feeling ecstatic that he had actually entered the zone. He was slightly dazed and did not realize until he was snapped back into reality by a hard whack to his back by Aomine.

“Aomine!” Midorima yelled.

Ignoring the frown of the green-haired shooter, Aomine grinned, “Was it fun to be in the zone? It was right? Right?”

“Hmpf, it was alright. I don’t see why you are so happy going into the zone,” Midorima muttered. However, he was really happy.

Aomine gave him another hard whack. “Tsundere! Tsundere! Midorima’s a tsundere!” Midorima shot him a death glare. Kise started teasing Midorima with Aomine. Sighing, Akashi and Kuroko went ahead first to change up and headed over to the new members’ locker room.

“Good job on the game just now,” Akashi congratulated. He then continued giving them information about their practices, coach, manager, other members and whatnot. “Fear not, we will be having a break from school soon. We can have your welcome party then.” With that he turned to leave with Kuroko.

Kagami and the members from Rakuzan stared in shock at the two retreating backs. They all had the feeling that Akashi was following Kuroko to wherever they were going to. “S-sei-chan! Where are you going now?” Mibuchi asked.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I stay over at Tetsuya’s over the weekends so I do not need to travel back and forth between Kyoto and Tokyo,” Akashi said. Now their jaws dropped. Kagami was thinking about how wrong it sounded and if Kuroko was alright. The Rakuzan members were wondering how Kuroko could stand Akashi. Meanwhile, Nijimura placed a hand on his temple and sighed.

Akashi gave them a glare, clearly knowing what each of them was thinking. Deciding not to make a big fuss, both Kuroko and Akashi walked out of the stadium to the bus stop. Since Kuroko could not play basketball for a while, Akashi had decided some other ways to practice Kuroko’s Emperor Eye.

Apparently it worked quite well even though it was kind of… lame. Since it took some time to wait for the bus and to wait until they alighted, Akashi had proposed that they play rock-paper-scissors on the way home, sometimes even having deals like if Kuroko won a three-point match, he would allow Kuroko to drink his favourite milkshake the next day.

At first, Kuroko had lost all the deals considering sometimes it was by chance. Then slowly, his Emperor Eye seemed to know what Akashi would do next. However, Akashi would know that Kuroko would know what he would do and then Akashi would change his mind. So it became a game of who can read the other’s movements faster. It really was challenging. Sometimes, Akashi would even make Kuroko play the game with his parents or grandmother (she knew how to play it too).

They were thoroughly shocked that Kuroko could ‘read their minds’ since Kuroko never told his parents about his development of the Emperor Eye. They did go to watch the Winter Cup but they had never player basketball before so did not realize the change when Kuroko awakened his Emperor Eye.

Again, Akashi had tempted him to win by saying that if he won, Akashi would teach Kuroko how to play Shogi. Akashi himself was actually quite bored since Midorima stayed far away and no one in his school were even near his level. His father was too busy to even play half a game with him. Now that Kuroko had his Emperor Eye, playing against Kuroko would be interesting.

A few days ago, Kuroko had expressed interest in learning the board game after seeing Akashi play against himself. He knew it would also help him improve his Emperor Eye and strategizing skills. Determined, Kuroko finally won that game of rock-paper-scissors, making Akashi teach him the board game the moment they stepped into the two-storey house.


	18. Chapter 18

One and a half month passed by quickly. Within that time, Kuroko was almost slightly better than Midorima in Shogi, based on Akashi-kun’s analysis. Since his right hand was in a cast, he was forced to use his left hand to write, thus making him ambidextrous. His teammates had also improved drastically under Akashi-kun’s immense training and Shirogane-kantoku’s torturous training.

It was once again a Friday. The rest of the team was having a practice match with another school that day and Akashi had insisted that he follow Kuroko to the hospital to remove his cast. Kuroko was happy yet a little nervous. Firstly, it was because he could finally get rid of the irritating piece of blue that made him look like a retard while bathing with a plastic bag over his wrist and for safety measures, even sticking his hand out of the shower (which looked hilarious). He was nervous too, because the next day, he knew he would get a hell load of training regimens from his coach.

Akashi-kun smirked at the troubled look of his teammate and roommate. Thinking about Akashi-kun, it also brought a sharp pain to his chest. For the whole one and a half month, Akashi-kun had skipped school and stayed with Kuroko to take care of him. He was so used to his captain’s strong presence that he knew it would take a long time for him to get used to the empty space on the floor in his room when Akashi-kun would leave on Sunday morning.

Akashi-kun seemingly read his mind as he said, “Tetsuya, I will still be staying over on weekends, so do not fret.” Kuroko could only nod as they sat in comfortable silence in the bus to the hospital.

They entered the large hospital and turned corners until they reached the appointed room. A doctor greeted them. Kuroko was actually surprised that they used a SAW to cut the cast open. He never knew they did that. Kuroko tried flexing his hands experimentally and tried moving his wrist. He felt completely fine although his right arms felt sore from the lack of exercise.

Kuroko smiled slightly. He could finally play basketball again and improve on the new method he had been trying to improvise. The doctor had given Kuroko more warnings about being more careful in the future and what not. Akashi-kun had also gained permission for both of them to head home once they were done in the hospital. He knew that his parents were waiting for him at home to celebrate his recovery.

That night, Kuroko’s mother had made vanilla milkshake once again, to Akashi-kun’s disapproval. However, he sighed in resignation and allowed Kuroko to drink his favourite drink anyway. That night, he was so fidgety until Akashi had told him to relax and go to sleep. He was very much excited to be touching an orange ball once again.

Kuroko awoke to someone trying to drag his body off his bed. Kuroko quickly opened an eye and the dragging stopped. “Oh. You’re finally awake. Wake up sleepyhead, now you only have fifteen minutes to prepare,” Akashi-kun smirked. Looking at the redhead, Kuroko noticed that Akashi-kun was already fully dressed and could go off anytime. By the looks of it, he seemed to have already finished breakfast.

Groaning Kuroko sat up to go wash up and smoothen down his hair. Last night he had been so excited until he could not sleep until past midnight, or so his time sense told him. Akashi-kun had already packed Kuroko’s things for that day when Kuroko stepped out of the bathroom to head down to eat breakfast.

Nigō was yapping happily at his master and Kuroko bent down to stroke his fur. Realizing that he could use his right hand once again, he did so. He had to get back to getting used to using his right hand.

Akashi-kun walked down the stairs a little later than expected. He was looking around the house as he asked, “Tetsuya, do you have any table tennis balls or tennis balls?”

“Yes, I think I have some in the storage box in my room. Why do you ask?” Kuroko said. Akashi-kun thanked him and walked up once again and left him with a ‘you will see later’.

When everyone had reached the stadium, Shirogane-kantoku announced, “Today, we shall be having mini-games!” Everyone looked confused. The coach smiled. “Instead of using basketballs to play, we are going to use other types of balls! Some can bounce and some cannot!”

Everyone had their jaws slack. Ignoring the bulging eyes of his team, Shirogane-kantoku continued by taking out balls from his bag and from Akashi-kun’s. Kuroko could recognize a netball, a baseball, some other types of balls and the table tennis ball and tennis ball from his room.

“The netball is similar to a basketball, so we are going to use that as practice first!” Shirogane-kantoku said. It turned out that it really was quite similar, but it was softer and lighter, so Kuroko could pass the ball faster. Midorima and Mibuchi were having difficulties adjusting to the weight of the lighter netball.

Then the ball grew smaller in size. Dribbling became a problem. Most of the players had large hands to dribble a basketball, but as the ball grew smaller, they realized how difficult it actually was to keep the ball steadily bouncing back to the same height. Then there were balls that could not bounce. When one person caught it, he had to immediately pass it to the next person since dribbling was out of the question and there was the travelling rule in basketball, which only allowed for two steps while holding the ball.

Aomine-kun actually seemed to enjoy the challenge but as the size of the ball became smaller, he got more frustrated. After lunch, they continued with the exercise and the next and final challenge was playing basketball with a table tennis ball.

Everyone looked hilarious fumbling with the smallest ball in their coach’s arsenal. It was so difficult to dribble that most just gave up on trying to dribble it. Furthermore, the ball was so bouncy that when Hayama-kun tried dribbling it, it flew high in the air and almost flew into one of the spectator seats. Hayama-kun had decided against trying to dribble it. The shooting guard of each team also had difficulties trying to shoot the ball since it was so light that a gust of wind could easily carry it anywhere. Thus, only those who could dunk were normally the people who scored.

Kuroko had tried out the new technique he was trying out on a table tennis ball. It was why he had it in the first place. It had worked on a table but in a game? He decided to test it out.

Kise-kun had just passed Kuroko the small table tennis ball. Kuroko looked like he was going to whack it into the waiting hands of Aomine-kun but when the ball hit the ground, it turned back to Kuroko and he whacked it to Akashi-kun who he knew would have the reflexes to catch it. Indeed, Akashi-kun caught it.

Kuroko wanted to continue running across the court before noticing all movements had stopped. Everyone was staring at him like he had done something unthinkable.

Aomine-kun muttered, “Tetsu… Just what in the world was that?”


	19. Chapter 19

**A more accurate description of what happened:** Basically, some of Kuroko’s passes after he whacks it are bounce passes which goes in the direction whacked. However, the ball turns back to Kuroko once the ball hits the ground instead of towards the person he whacked it to. Explanation of how is in the story down there ^_^

* * *

 

“Hey, Kurokocchi, what was that?” Kise-kun asked next right after Aomine-kun did. “The ball hit the ground after you whacked it, then it went back to you! How did that happen?”

“I thought it was going to be passed to me!” Aomine-kun grumbled.

Kuroko fidgeted. “It was a new technique I was planning to try out… I don’t think I can do it with a basketball yet…”

Sudden claps could be heard from the benches as their coach stood up and walked towards Kuroko, saying, “Oh! Kuroko, so that’s why you had been reading those physic books! So, can you explain how this pass works?”

Akashi-kun threw the table tennis ball to Kuroko so that he could explain. Kuroko sat down onto the floor, much to everyone’s surprise, and started, “If you ever played with a table tennis ball, most of us would have played with it like this.” Kuroko placed the ball onto the floor and pressed the tip of his fingers on it, thus making the ball roll outwards. Then, at where the ball reached the furthest, the ball turned back towards Kuroko’s hands.

Apparently some people who did not try that out immediately asked for the ball to try it but Akashi-kun gave them glares for interrupting and they stopped. Kuroko continued, “See, because I pressed the ball down, the ball spun inwards as it travelled outwards because I forced it outwards. Then when the spinning force is greater, the ball turned back inwards towards me.” Kuroko stared up to see if everyone was following.

Everyone seemed fine all except for Kagami-kun, Aomine-kun and Kise-kun. Ignoring their questioning stares, he explained, “So just now, when Kise-kun passed me the ball, I purposely whacked it so that the ball spun towards me while it was travelling towards Aomine-kun. But when it hit the ground, the ball travelled back because it was spinning towards me, allowing me to pass it to Akashi-kun instead.”

Some of them nodded in understanding. Kuroko suggested, “That is why it would be good if Akashi-kun is my new light. He can predict my movements and I can predict my team’s. Akashi-kun would be able to catch this new pass without any problems. Since I will know where my team members are, I can decide which type of pass I would like to do, this new pass or a normal misdirection pass. Akashi-kun would also know what I decide the moment I move to pass it.”

Shirogane-kantoku scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Yes… That would work well! Great idea Kuroko!”

“Kurokocchi! That’s soooooo cool! I don’t understand all of what you just said, but you can troll your opponents! Can we call it the Troll Pass?” Kise-kun asked excitedly. Kuroko stared at him blankly and shot down the idea immediately.

Kise-kun wined while Mayuzumi-kun proposed, “Kuroko-sempai, how about naming it the Return Pass? It did go back towards you after all.” Kuroko thought for a while and nodded.

Everyone dispersed to their own personal practice since they were considerably done with their mini-games. Some even challenged themselves to do their personal practice with the different balls that the coach and Akashi-kun brought. Mayuzumi-kun had asked for the table tennis ball to try the Return Pass. However, the ball never returned towards Mayuzumi-kun.

Meanwhile, Kuroko was trying out the Return Pass with a tennis ball with Akashi-kun. Mayuzumi-kun came up to them to ask Kuroko why he could not do it. Akashi-kun frowned and said, “Compare your hand sizes.”

The two did as they were told. Surprisingly, Kuroko’s hand length was longer than that of Mayuzumi-kun’s. Akashi-kun explained, “I believe your hand has to be long enough to make the ball spin fast enough. In this case, Tetsuya is able to do it as his hand is long enough to spin the ball.”

That was the only logical explanation Kuroko could think of too. Mayuzumi-kun replied disappointedly, “Oh… Alright, I will go resume with my training, then.”

Kuroko went over to reassure him, “Mayuzumi-kun, I believe everyone will have their own talents. You will find talents unique to you only in the future.” Mayuzumi-kun seemed to lighten up a bit and continued with his own usual training.

Returning back to the task at hand, Kuroko was almost perfecting his Return Pass with a tennis ball. “You have to spin it faster the larger the ball gets, so whack it harder,” Akashi-kun ordered. Kuroko nodded and tried it once again, causing the tennis ball to turn back.

Practice continued without a hitch while Akashi-kun supervised Kuroko in perfecting the Return Pass with a tennis ball first. As the two parted ways with the rest of the team, Akashi-kun asked, “Tetsuya, I think that that new method of passing as a lot of potential. I finally understand why you wondered about having two phantoms on a team. With you passing like that, it would seem so. However, I was thinking, after we master the Return Pass with a basketball, we could perhaps try and spin it in such a way that once the ball hits the ground, it bounces off in another direction to a nearby member of the team.”

Kuroko seemed to realize how much potential the new pass he had created had as his eyes lit up. “That will be a very valuable passing method. I will try hard to perfect the Return Pass first. Thank you Akashi-kun.”

“No need to thank me, Tetsuya. You have improved greatly so far. Keep up the good work,” Akashi-kun congratulated as they reached the bus stop. The ride home went smoothly too.


	20. Chapter 20

Akashi was packing up the last of his stuff as he heard Tetsuya stir in his bed. “Mm, Akashi-kun, why are you packing?” Tetsuya mumbled softly, still half awake.

Akashi raised an eyebrow. “I’m leaving in an hour’s time, remember?”

Tetsuya’s eyes widened comically as he shot right out of bed. Apparently he had forgot that Akashi had to leave the house at eight sharp since it was a daily occurrence to Tetsuya to see Akashi doing something else other than packing each morning.

Akashi was done packing when Tetsuya walked out of the bathroom, still halfway through combing down his bed hair. Both of them walked down the stairs to eat breakfast. Last night, Tetsuya’s parents had come back from another business trip and they had promised to make breakfast for both of them before Akashi left the house.

It was amazing that tofu soup could actually be considered as a breakfast meal but Akashi really did not mind. After all, it was his favourite food. His father would mind his eating that for breakfast though and he would not want to go back to the house anytime soon but he had been missing out on school too much as it is.

Sighing inwardly, he thanked Mrs. Kuroko who had prepared the food and dug in with Tetsuya, who his mother had made vanilla milkshake. Even though Akashi did give Tetsuya a disapproving look, he ignored it and considered it as a farewell gift instead. He just hoped that Tetsuya would watch his addiction to vanilla milkshakes.

It was about half an hour later that the two of them stood at the front door. Akashi said his goodbyes and turned to leave, only to be held back by a tug on his coat. “Yes?” he inquired as he turned to look at Tetsuya who had one hand on his coat.

“Uhm… I am very sorry for causing you so much trouble when you were staying with me. I hope your father is not angry,” Tetsuya mumbled so softly that if Akashi did not have his sharp hearing, he would have no doubt missed it.

Akashi gave a small scoff and placed his hand over Tetsuya’s head. “Do not worry about me, but promise me something: Take care of yourself when I’m not here,” Akashi reassured.

“Akashi-kun, you are going to mess up my hair again,” Tetsuya pouted. “But I’ll miss you.” Again, the last sentence was said very softly.

Just then, the sleek black limousine arrived outside the house. Akashi smiled slightly although to most people it would have looked like a smirk, signaling their most torturous death, but he knew Tetsuya knew better than that. “I will miss you too, my shadow.”

Nigō ran up to the redhead to lick him too. He scratched the dog behind his ears. The dog was actually the first canine that he had actually… liked. He disliked all the others, most of them always being too rebellious but this dog had just… made him like him. He was not sure if it was because he always tagged along or if it was because the dog resembled Tetsuya so much.

Returning a wave, Akashi entered the car and nodded to the driver. The driver then drove the young Akashi heir to the station.

“I’m home,” Akashi mumbled as he opened the large wooden doors into a luxurious living room. The maids and servants who lined the living room immediately stopped what they were doing and bowed to him.

He knew where he was to go first: To his father’s study. He knew the older Akashi would be waiting there. Sighing, he did just that and opened another set of large doors to be met with one very angry Akashi.

“So, Seijūrō, finally willing to come home, huh,” he bellowed loudly. Akashi could have sworn that his deep voice could have made everything in the room vibrate.

“Yes, I am home. I was living with a friend in Tokyo to take care of him,” Akashi replied with a poker face. He had actually learnt a few tricks from living with Tetsuya until now on how to keep a poker face. First trick was to make eye contact and look as if you knew you were right.

“I know that. But you missed your school and basketball for so long. What will you do if you lose your techniques?” his father asked again.

“If you did not know, I have practices with my own team every week. The Rakuzan team is also part of that team. I have also been doing my school work diligently, Father,” Akashi said. His father was starting to get on his nerves. He guessed that it was possibly his rebellious age. They started bickering when Akashi would not budge and he knew he had won from the frowning face of his father.

The older redhead, who resembled Akashi in so many ways, face-palmed and sighed. “Fine. Go back to your room to unpack. From tomorrow onwards, I will expect you to work harder at your school.” Akashi nodded. When he was about to leave, his father called out to him again before he could leave.

“Yes?”

“Are you planning a training camp for this team of yours?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to plan your trip in Kyoto. I want your team to stay here in this house so that I can observe if they are worthy of victory. And I expect you to win this competition of yours, Seijūrō. You shall not fail like you did in your last competition.”

With a curt nod, Akashi left to unpack his belongings in his room. The maids and servants must have just cleaned it, as it seemed like there were no dust even after one and a half months of neglect from his master. He had no idea why his father always liked to meddle with his personal life but he could not disobey his father.

After texting Tetsuya that he reached his house safely and that his father was not too angry, he started searching through places in the Kyoto prefecture for possible places to train.


	21. Chapter 21

None of them had ever visited their redheaded captain before. One reason was that they knew that Akashi did not really welcome them. By Akashi, it meant both their captain  _and_ his father, they assumed. However, the main reason was that they were very afraid of him. Very. Who knew how many booby traps there were in his house ever since that Midorima had lent him his scissors.

Again, Aomine cursed their star shooter inwardly as he trudged along the snow-covered road with the said green-haired tsundere, his childhood friend and his invisible former shadow. He had met up with the other two at the Tokyo station to travel to Kyoto together since Sastsuki already met him at his house. Apparently, it was not just like a normal meet up at the station. It was a hell for the tanned teen, who usually woke up at the latest time possible before rushing to the school, and sometimes he even skipped school just to sleep!

It was obvious to Aomine that Akashi hated him. Akashi must have known about how much sleep he needed but yet he had texted them at TWELVE midnight to inform them that they were to meet him at Kyoto Station at SEVEN. Teens needed at least eight hours of sleep!

Why Akashi hated him was unknown to the teen. What had he ever done to piss Akashi off? Wait, no, scrap that. He had done many things to piss him off. But surely he was not the only one! Grumbling incoherent things, he saw the greenhead and pink-head yawn sleepily while his best friend looked quite awake actually. Even though it was six fifty in the morning.

“Oi, Tetsu, what time did you wake up?” Aomine asked, getting a little curious as to how he was so awake. He even seemed to have time to comb down that bed hair of his. If Aomine reared chickens, he would have tried to place one on Tetsu’s head to see if it treated his hair as a nest and laid eggs. If that really worked, he would have done that everyday, but unfortunately, he did not rear chickens. He did have some pet cicadas though. He had to try and keep them out his mother’s sight, as the beastly woman would most probably squish them all.

He believed his mother was one of the two people who were scary enough to control his life. Though she was a second to his red-haired captain. But he was soon proven wrong as he realized that the two scariest people in his life so far actually lost to a third person: Akashi’s dad.

They had walked through the front gates one minute before seven. If the massive front doors were impressive, the sight of the massive mansion was seriously… wow. Aomine had never, EVER, seen a house this big. The main porch was practically as large as a basketball court with a fountain in the middle and around-about driveway. Some limousines parked at some car parks beside the house.

The house seemed to have three floors and the main door loomed about twice as tall as he was. The doors opened automatically as they stepped on the front steps. In the main living room, chandeliers lighted the large area and a television that Aomine swore was thrice as big as the one he had at home loomed on one wall of the living room. The couch in front of it was pure velvet.

Then he looked down the hall. Maids and servants were everywhere, doing chores, running errands. A servant came up to them to lead the way to the ‘Master’s Study’. Aomine was impressed. He could also see his three companion’s awed looks.

Aomine was thinking about plans to bribe Akashi to let him stay over some time when he entered the massive study. His jaws literally dropped to the ground as he saw two very similar figures, though one was obviously shorter. Both had red hair. Both had that commanding aura. Both wore semi-formal clothes. One and a half had the same red eyes.

Aomine gulped. Tetsu was the first to react, bowing at waist-height and said, “Good morning, Akashi-san, Akashi-kun.” Akashi nodded in acknowledgement. Momoi and Midorima were next, followed by a shocked Aomine, who Midorima had to push down to bow. All of them were slightly surprised that the older Akashi could hide his shock at the ‘sudden’ appearance of Tetsu.

The elder seemed to be whispering something to Akashi. Meanwhile, Aomine mumbled to Midorima, “Eh, who’s the older dude? He looks exactly like Akashi!”

He could tell Midorima wanted to facepalm but what could he do? He did not know who the older dude was! He could be a long-lost brother of all he knew! Momoi had heard the question and was sighing. Instead, Tetsu gave him a deadpanned reply, “He’s Akashi-kun’s father.” Aomine’s jaw dropped once again and he stared between the two and started sputtering incoherently.

Akashi came over soon after. He gave a curt command while ignoring Aomine’s stares. “Let’s go to the meeting room. I will explain things there.” Aomine was still wide eyed as he followed the captain through the winding snake-like corridors to a random room that he probably would not have been able to find. He would bet any amount of money that he would not be able to find the toilets in this mansion house of Akashi’s.

The whole team was waiting in the room, including the coach. Once everyone was in and the doors were shut, Akashi let out a sigh of relief. “Don’t do anything funny in this house, for one. There are surveillance cameras. Next, do not try to approach my father. Most of you have just met him and would understand why.” No doubt everyone could tell he was more of a demon than Akashi was. Probably by about a hundred times.

He sighed again. “Anyway, the plan for this holiday camp is to practice at Mount Atago which is in Kyoto. On my father’s request, you are all welcomed to stay here for the holidays. By request, it means orders. Guestrooms are available to each of you and necessities are all provided. We will leave for our first training session at six tomorrow.” Everyone’s eyes practically sparked at the order.

“We will have stamina training, etcetera, and even train at the gym in the backyard of the house. There is a basketball court there too which we will use. Anyway, for the fun part, we will be visiting the shrine located at the top of Mount Atago to celebrate the New Year,” Akashi ended. “You may all go to your rooms to unpack. The servants will lead the way. Any queries, you can find me in my room by asking a servant or you can ask the servants yourselves. Get some rest today.” With that he left the room. Murmurs rose from the gathered team as some were excited while some were groaning.

Sure enough, servants walked through the doors seconds later to guide them to their respective rooms. They realized that Akashi’s room was at the end of the corridor of guest rooms. The rooms beside Akashi’s were Tetsu’s and Midorima’s.

Lazily checking out the room, he was beyond elated when he realized that there was a connecting toilet to his room. At least he would not be wetting his pants over not finding the toilet! He unpacked his things soon after, grumbling when he was done, as it was only seven thirty in the morning. AND AKASHI WANTED THEM TO MEET AT SEVEN!

He plonked onto the bed and dozed to sleep, not knowing why they had one free day. It was not really for them to rest, after all, as they had to face the judgmental eye of the adult Akashi that day. Each of them. Alone. In a room with an Akashi. A fierce one. It was going to be torture.


	22. Chapter 22

Akashi frowned as he was sent by Father to relay a message to Daiki. He knocked on the door. He had purposely place Ryōta and Daiki in the furthest rooms from his. Who knew just how bad they snored.

He knocked on the doors again. No reply. Leaning his ear onto the door, he sighed. Daiki was sleeping again, just as he had predicted as he could tell from the loud snoring. He knew Daiki would not lock his door so he entered rather loudly, purposely slamming the doors open. To his slight amusement, the teen immediately shot out of bed and grabbed his bolster in defense.

“It’s just me, Daiki. My father wants to meet you first. I will lead you to the study,” he then promptly walked out of the room. It was fortunate that Daiki had suitable clothes on as he chased the red head. Father had inspected every single one of their physical appearances the moment they entered the study to see if they were ‘acceptable’.

Father had noticed that Daiki dressed the most poorly, considering he wore a dark blue sleeveless shirt with jeans. It was way too informal for Father’s liking. As Daiki caught up, he asked, “Akashi, what do you mean the ‘first’?”

“He’s going to be interviewing each of you, one by one.”

There was a long pause as he registered the things in his head. “WHAAAAAT?” he yelled.

“Keep your volume down, Daiki. We are reaching soon.”

Daiki tried to grab at Akashi’s shirt to slow him down but it was too late as the massive double doors of the study loomed before them. With a slight smirk, he pushed the teen in. His smirk widened as he heard Daiki’s yelp from outside the study.

Aomine could not help but yelp loudly as he was met with the red eyes of the authoritative Akashi.

“Take a sit.”

Wobbling visibly, Aomine did as he was told as he stumbled to the velvet chair across the Akashi. The Akashi chuckled. Aomine started sweating buckets. What if throwing weapons was a talent all Akashi’s had? When one of them ‘laughed’ it meant pure torture.

“Hm… Aomine Daiki, right? So, Daiki, how are your school grades?”

“Uhm… I pass? That’s uh alright, right?”

“No. I’ve checked your school results. You _barely_ pass. You are so unfitting to even enter Teikō. I am very disappointed that Seijūrō has befriended someone like you.”

Aomine was raging internally at this moment. Akashi’s father was seriously a jerk. Kagami was bad enough, but this? He would be on Aomine’s hate list forever. He almost yelled, “Who do you think he is? Your puppet? You think you can control his whole freaking life? It was Akashi’s choice to make me my friend and I’m grateful!”

Aomine stood up and slammed the door behind him as he stormed out.

Five minutes later, another member of the team entered the room. Questions were directed at them and the same way with many being angered and stormed out. Some were decent enough to remain silent until their ‘interview’ was over.

The person who entered the room last was Kuroko. Bowing down again, he greeted the older Akashi.

“Hm, I see you are the most polite member of Seijūrō team, Kuroko Tetsuya. It seems you have a very low presence just like what my son had told me. What did Seijūrō find so important in a person like you that he would forgo school and his own basketball practice with his school?” The Akashi had his elbows on the mahogany desk with his fingers laced under his chin. Kuroko sat before him unwaveringly.

“I do not have any idea either, but he had told me that he had found potential in me. He allowed me to develop my current basketball technique and it is currently a very important asset to the team. I believe I do not deserve to have been nurtured by Akashi-kun but I am very grateful to him, nonetheless. He is a close friend and I would have done the same thing to take care of him if he was hurt,” Kuroko answered. It really was what he thought anyway. Kuroko was a nobody who just loved basketball. No one noticed him anyway, at least not until Aomine-kun and Akashi-kun came into his life.

However, even though Aomine-kun did become his friend, he would have just remained in the third string was it not for Akashi-kun, who had helped him to climb his way up to the first string. More importantly, he gave Kuroko the chance to make more friends. Therefore, Akashi-kun was one of Kuroko’s most treasured friends.

“I see. Why do you think you are more important to Seijūrō than his future?”

“Akashi-kun has changed from the stoic captain he has been. I believe he now treasures ties and bonds more than his future as friendships can only be forged once. Even though he became cold to us, his own team, I still tried hard to change him back to the kind person he was before. All of us like Akashi-kun as he is now.”

“Well, just so you know, I do not think a mere bond should be more important than his future career life. You may be part of his team, but know this: you are at his disposal. A mere bond should not prevent him from seeing his goal in life as inferior.”

Kuroko had the mind to keep most of his anger inside. His father should not be the one to dictate his life. Akashi-kun should live the way he wanted to. Some anger could be heard in his voice as he answered, “Akashi-kun should live his life the way he wants. He chooses his path in life by himself. If he wants friends, let him have friends. I had experienced loneliness before and I feel it is not something that Akashi-kun deserves.” He paused before excusing himself, saying he had more unpacking to do.

Akashi had a nagging feeling that his father had done some things to make his team pissed. From the way Daiki had stormed back, the way Atsushi was muttering to himself, and worse of all, Tetsuya seemed to be emitting a dark aura around him. Then Father called him to the study again.

“Father,” Akashi greeted.

“Seijūrō, this won’t take too much of your time. It is just regarding your current team,” Father said.

“I see that they were angered. What happened?”

Father seemed to think for a moment. “I just asked them some questions. Anyway, I have seen it for myself. They are loyal companions, especially Tetsuya Kuroko. They have a chance of victory in the Olympics, so I will be waiting for that day to watch the final match. However, taking care of that friend of yours had cause you to lose focus on your studies. Basketball is also starting to become a distraction to you. I will give you one final chance, though: If you do win the Olympics, you can continue basketball.”

There was a pause, then he continued, “But if you lose, you are quitting basketball.”


	23. Chapter 23

It was six in the morning when everyone gathered in the living room of the Akashi mansion. “Today, we are going to play a game. Shirogane-kantoku has gone ahead up the mountain with Satsuki who is going to hide some items in different areas of the mountain. There should not be many people on the mountain today so we may conduct this activity without much commotion,” Akashi explained.

He continued, “The items are table tennis balls which are orange and they can be found anywhere. Break up into groups of three and the team that has collected the most number of balls at six in the evening wins. We will meet in the shrine at the top of the mountain at six. The winning team will have their normal training the next day, but the losing teams will have their training regiments multiplied by their position.

Everyone visibly gulped but nodded nonetheless. Akashi gave the signal to form their groups. The three uncrowned kings formed a group immediately, possibly forgetting that Mayuzumi was there. Aomine and Kise formed a team with Midorima, and Nijimura took Murasakibara and Mayuzumi under his wing. Regardless to say, Akashi grouped up with Kuroko and Kagami had insisted that he wanted to be in the same team as his part-time shadow.

The teams then took a bus to the foot of the mountain before Akashi blew a whistle to signify the start of the competition. Indeed, all of the teams immediately rushed up the mountain. All except for a team with two redheads and a bluenette. “I am very sure that Satsuki has hidden some here. She must have known that many of them would rush up the mountain,” Akashi deduced as he bent down to pick up a table tennis ball, which was very obviously lying on the ground in front of them.

Kuroko nodded. However, Kagami was itching to climb up the mountain already but only stopped in his tracks as the shorter redhead gave him a glare, no doubt able to read what was on Kagami’s mind. Similarly, Kuroko shot him a deadpanned look too and Kagami could not help but think that Akashi must have rubbed off on Kuroko a little too much.

Sighing, Kagami trudged on ahead, followed by Akashi, then Kuroko. Around the base of the mountain near the entrance to the path up the mountain, they had already found five of those balls that Momoi had hid. Akashi shoved the bag that contained the balls to Kagami.

Glaring at the shorter captain, Kagami growled and was about to shove it back in Akashi’s face but the redhead was faster. He reasoned, “Tetsuya and I do not have as much strength as you do. If my assumption of your strength is mistaken, then I shall double your training tomorrow to improve your strength. That is reasonable, isn’t it? Now hold the bag for us.” Kagami dared not retaliate.

As the team slowly climbed up the mountain, Kuroko walked beside Akashi and said suddenly, “Akashi-kun, you seem a little distracted today. Are you alright?”

Sighing, Akashi wondered if he should tell Kuroko about what his father had said. He did not want his team to worry about him but he knew Kuroko would find out sooner or later. He was just too observant. Lowering his voice, Akashi told Kuroko, telling him not to tell anyone else.

He was silent for a moment before replying, “Do not worry, Akashi-kun. No matter what, we shall win. I will not let Akashi-san prevent you from playing basketball.” Akashi smiled at that and ruffled his shadow’s blue hair.

“Yes, we will. Come on, I am assuming that there are more balls that we are to find.” With renewed energy, Kuroko quickly followed behind the two redheads. It was a relief to Akashi to at least share the burden with someone who he trusted but he still felt a little but of regret. He had wanted to face this by himself.

The sun was setting by the time all groups have finally met up in the shrine. Momoi and Shirogane were already sitting on one of the benches, sipping on some sports drink that they had bought from a vending machine.

They stared at the collected items. It was almost hilarious to see that Akashi’s group had almost thrice of the number of balls of all the other teams combined. Momoi had placed practically fifty percent of the balls on the lower half of the mountain while the other fifty percent were spread out sparsely over the top.

When the other three groups stared at the whole stuffed bag that hung over Kagami’s shoulder, they were slack-jawed. “Dammit! How’d you guys get so many?” Aomine raged.

“Most were found at the base of the mountain. It was not our fault you guys rushed up the mountain without checking the base first,” Akashi replied. Aomine’s group, which included Kise and Midorima, had found the least number of table tennis balls. Midorima was angry he was being dragged into having his trainings quadrupled because of the reckless pair of blue and yellow.

Nijimura, along with Murasakibara and Mayuzumi came in second while the third group consisted of the three uncrowned kings who were now groaning and pouting, having already experience what a ‘normal’ training was from both Akashi and Shirogane.

The next day was torture for most of them as expected. Stamina training was hell. They had to run up and down the mountain ten times, with doubling, tripling and quadrupling for some. Teams that were done could practice at the basketball court, which the Akashi mansion had, amazingly. In fact, there were TWO courts, an indoor gym, a swimming pool and practically any facility you could think of.

Meanwhile, Kuroko was trying to perfect the new type of pass that Akashi had suggested. He was to try and spin the ball in such a way that it was not to much and not too little that when it bounced off the floor, it would turn in his desired direction instead of back to him.

He had excused himself from a game against Nijimura’s team to practice this by himself. His new pass would be a very good advantage in games and he wanted to help Akashi win. After all, he did not want Akashi to hate the sport that he loved so much.


	24. Chapter 24

Everyone had practically crawled back to their own houses in their respective prefecturals. After that torturous training of hell by Akashicchi and Shirogane-kantoku, everyone had to rest for a whole day after that training before they were able to walk properly. At least Akashicchi had the heart to let them stay for a day more.

School had started once again, sadly, and Kise had more photo shootings to do. Even more sadly, Akashicchi had also increased their training regiments by quite a lot. The Olympics would start in mid-July. It seemed like every four years, the Olympics would get earlier and earlier. Thus, they would be in their second year of high school when they participated in the Games.

Which also meant that some of the sempais would graduate. Sighing sadly, Kise boarded a bus from the train station to the gymnasium, as it was once again another Friday. Akashicchi had refused to tell them which school they would face today, which made Kise a little suspicious.

He was once again one of the earliest few considering he had asked his school permission to leave early on Fridays. Midorimacchi was in the locker rooms with Aomionecchi and Kagamicchi. And where was Kuro—

“Hello, Kise-kun,” a voice greeted. Kise jumped.

“Kurokocchi!” Kise immediately spun around to grab the phantom but the teal-haired teen moved aside, allowing Kise to bang into someone else. Someone else shorter than him but taller than the said blue-haired teen. He looked down only to meet irritated red orbs that were not from the other redhead in the room changing.

Kise was already preparing to write a note to his parents and siblings to say sorry that he had died early, but surprisingly, the captain sighed and just pushed Kise out of the way. His Rakuzan team followed along behind along with Murasakibaracchi and Nijimuracchi.

Akashicchi walked to the middle of the room and cleared his throat to gain some attention. More like everyone’s attention but whatever. “Today, we will only have time for basic warm-ups before our game starts. After that, we are going to review each of your strengths and weaknesses,” he announced.

Kise asked, “Eh? Akashicchi, which school are we gonna play against today?” Akashicchi smirked and for the second time of that day, he thought he was going to die. Akashicchi smiling (smirking or anything other than that poker face) meant imminent death for anyone. The only person who did not mine was actually Kurokocchi and that was quite expected, considering that they had lived together for a while when Kurokocchi broke his wrist.

Anyway, Akashicchi continued, “Good question, Ryōta.” Kise released a sigh of relief. “Today, we are going to play against Japan’s previous national team. As some of you may already know, most of them are your school’s current coaches. They will be arriving here in half an hour. If we fail to beat them, we will not be suited to play in the Games. During past games that Japan had participated in, we have never gotten a position very high. Thus, if we lose this game, we might as well not participate at all.

“They are your coaches, so they know most of your abilities. However, humans do grow, so I hope you will improve yourself as much as you can during this game. The team consists of Kagetora-san, Takeuchi-kantoku, Nakatani-kantoku, Harasawa-kantoku and Shirogane-kantoku. Their manager is Araki-kantoku.”

Kise searched his memory for the said names and realised that one of them is his current Kaijō coach. HIS KAIJŌ COACH! The man who was a plump as a balloon! Wait, scrap that, that’s too small. More like a… pig? Heheh. Kise sputtered, “E-eh? Akashicchi, Takenuchi-kantoku is so fat! How’s he gonna play?”

Everyone resisted the urge to laugh but a sharp glare from the redhead made them all shut up. “Do not underestimate them. I am personally not sure if how he would be playing but he did not make it to the national team for nothing,” Akashicchi said. “Enough talking. Let’s go warm up.”

In the middle of their stretches, the door to the gymnasium opened to reveal five men (including one fat one) and a woman. Everyone greeted their respective coaches.

A white haired coach, who Kise recognized as the Rakuzan coach, instructed, “Continue your training. We have to prepare too.” Thus, they continued their trainings and such. When they came back out, they went to prepare for the match themselves.

Kise glanced at his coach to see his round belly poking out of his basketball jersey. It looked similar to their current ones just that theirs were red and white. Seeing his belly flopping about while he ran was really hilarious and Kise had stopped dribbling his ball to cover his mouth.

He received a hard whack from Midorimacchi who frowned at him and said, “Kise. Your coach was known for his defense. Do not look down on them.” Kise though about it and instead burst up laughing.

He received glares from various people, most of which had heard what Midorimacchi had said and knew what Kise was thinking. Kise tried to explain to the perplexed greenhead while laughing, “Hah… Maybe he uses his *laughs* large body width to *laughs* block the opponent!” With that, he continued to laugh. Big mistake to say that loudly.

Glares were directed to him, burning holes into his back. Kise gulped especially when he felt a demonic aura that was for once in his life not from his feared captain. Well, it was really worse than that, considering it came from his COACH who could torture him everyday and they were now their opponents!

To break the tension, Akashicchi fortunately (or unfortunately) cleared his throat and announced, “Alright. Let’s start the game now.”


	25. Chapter 25

Momoi was just about to throw the ball up when the gym doors flew open.

“Phewf! We’re not too late!” a certain bespectacled senior sighed. Aomine stared at the intruder and grumbled. More people came through the doors.

“E-eeeeeeeeh? AKASHICCHI? What’s our seniors doing here?!” Kise yelled.

Akashi scoffed. “You wouldn’t think that our seniors would be ignored, would you? I’ve arranged for seniors from all of our schools to come here to watch this game, which will be our last game between us and another party until the Olympics.”

Currently, the Generation of Miracles were sitting on the bench along with Mayuzumi, as they had put their second team forward to test out the opponent’s skills. Unfortunately for Kuroko and Kagami, they had no year three seniors. When the never-ending stream of humans continued, some stared at the young captain weirdly.

“Oh, I invited the school’s second and third string’s seniors too. You can’t leave their hard work out. Unfortunately, Rakuzan has many seniors. Please be patient,” Akashi informed. There was an awkward silence that passed through the stadium while they waited. Sensing the awkwardness, the visitors quickly hurried to any empty seats seen.

When they were all settled down, Momoi cleared her voice to continue with the game. As the ball flew up high, Kagami and Harasawa (Tōō’s coach) jumped for the tip off. Of course, the dude-with-the-amazing-flea-power whacked the ball to their point guard, Nijimura. Giving a small thumbs-up, he quickly dribbled the ball over to their hoops and was about to make a drive through a defender. When he realised he had lost the ball.

“Wha-“

“Knew it. Fast break!” Shirogane (Eiji) yelled to his teammates. As instructed, they did a fast break back only for Kagami to mark Shirogane.

“Damn! If only Kuroko was on the court he would have back-tipped the ball! Never mind, I can’t rely on him here.” With that, he tried to snatch the ball only for Shirogane to do a crossover behind his back to the other hand on continue on his drive. “Shit!”

There was a second defender, namely Nebuya, who marked him. With a quick pass, Kagetora received the ball. It was almost perfect timing as Kagami whacked the ball from the shooting guard’s hands before he could launch it.

Kotarō smirked as he dribbled to the other side once again with his lightning fast dribbling skills. He threw it over to Mibuchi, who did a normal three-pointer since he was free of marks.

Grumbling, they heard some of the old geezers say, “Man! How long has it been since we played together! This is so not fair…”

Then Nakatani (Shūtoku’s coach) asked Shirogane, “Captain, can we go full on out?” With a small smirk, he nodded. Nakatani then did a hand signal to his other teammates. He received nods too.

“Fast break! Don’t worry, we’ll get those points back!” Shirogane yelled. Nijimura tried to block him from crossing to their side but he was shocked as the used-to-be point guard had a stronger drive than him.

The point difference was just getting bigger and bigger slowly but surely. All of the coaches were really working together unbelievably well, ignoring the many years not spent playing together.

By the end of the first quarter, it was already an eight-point difference with 28-20. As the teams walked to the bench, they were all grinding their teeth at the unbelievable score.

“I see that you are still having that mindset of ‘we can win no matter what’. Did losing in the Winter Cup dull your brains? You are not giving your all. Atsushi, you’re up next. Member change with Nebuya,” Akashi ordered. This earned a loud yelp from the Muscle Gorilla.

They had discussed a few plans of what to do in which situation while their own while Momoi piped up about possible advances made by ‘the old geezers’ after witnessing their performance. After two minutes, the referee sounded the whistle for them to head back onto the court.

Seeing the change of members from the opposing team, they were not surprised, as Araki had already predicted that this would happen. As usual, Harasawa had commended her for her accurate predictions, earning a sigh at the old bachelor, still as flirtatious as ever.

As the games resumed, it was with no doubt that getting for points for the coaches was harder. Even though only a second year, the purple haired giant were taller than them at the height of 208cm.

“Our usual strategy isn’t working! Plan B!” Shirogane yelled. As the redhead seated on the bench folded his arms while watching the match, he felt frustrated that his Rakuzan coach acted just like him. Being a point guard and captain too, with amazing observation abilities, really irked him. Their strategies were mostly the same too, and thus the ranting of their coach that Akashi could practically be their next coach anytime.

The people on the stands were shouting with glee as the quite fast-paced game as the other team had resorted to something similar to Seirin’s run-and-gun style but they were standing closer to each other to facilitate passing. Furthermore, they were not as predictable as Seirin was. Fast-paced it was, all except for a certain giant, just standing under the hoop, not even moving much save when the ball came over to his side.

“Akashi-kun,” a voice piped up beside him. Without needing to look, he could already recognize the bluenette’s voice. “Do you require either Mayuzumi-kun or me to be subbed in?”

Akashi thought about that. Truth be told, he knew that with this team, they would already win, considering the other side did not have as much stamina and also because Murasakibara was preventing most of the shots from making it through while his own team scored as normal. However, the point of this game was to show that they were capable enough to beat national teams from other countries.

Nodding his head, he asked for a member change the moment the ball went out. “Chihiro, you are out. Hayama, you’re on the bench now.” With a sad frown, Kotarō did as he was told.

Meanwhile, Kuroko requested, “Akashi-kun, in the next half, could you play with me? I want to try something out. I’ve been working on it ever since the camp and I want to show it to you.”

A satisfied smirked formed on the redhead’s lips.


	26. Chapter 26

Only Shirogane was used to the weak presence of Mayuzumi, one of his own regulars. It was fortunate Kuroko was not sent out, as amongst the team, Shirogane had the fastest reaction speeds to block passes to Mayuzumi. It was without question that most would have failed because he was supposed to be marking the point guard of the other team, Nijimura.

Thus, the point gap just kept reducing. The team of previous national players all knew that this new group of players would beat them without fail, but it was just a test, basically to see if their team dynamics were good and functioning.

It seemed the case as they tried to find faults in their opponent’s teamwork but it should be due to the vigorous team training that Akashi put them through for them to trust each other so much. But, they would not loose.

“Man-to-man!” he yelled. Everyone did exactly that. It drained their stamina, but after a few more minutes, it would be half time where they could rest. Man-to-man defense also allowed them to closely mark the opponents. The good thing about this team was that they had been coaches, though Aida had quit being one early.

This allowed them to know each type of style of both offense and defense, giving them the flexibility. To catch up with the point difference, they started to use their team’s well-known tricks.

When they were on the offense, no matter how close they were in the box, they will not throw. Instead, they will pass it to Aida instead, or anyone if Aida was not there. Being national players, they were all capable of shooting threes with about an eighty-percent shooting chance while their own three pointer had an almost hundred percent chance of it getting in.

And when they started marking anyone who was at the three-pointer line, they would just shoot from the box. It was an especially good trick to lure the defense giant out while they shoot. Aida had suggested the idea during the break as he had explained that it was like Kiyoshi Teppei’s Right of Postponement but on a team level.

However, the other team was not as shaken as what they would have thought. Murasakibara was not the only good defender on the team. They had Kagami, acting as the power forward currently who could jump at an extraordinary height. Thus those two took turns defending the outside and the inside.

By the end of the quarter, the other team had already caught up and passed them with 56-54 score, thanks to a dunk from the taller redhead. As the team walked back to their locker room, Akira put her hands to her hips and scolded, “Hey! You guys are supposed to be NATIONAL LEVEL PLAYERS! How can you let these brats beat you like that? I know you guys are not serious yet. Need me to give you a good hard slap?” Her shinai appeared in her hands.

Remembering the ‘good’ old days of being slapped over and over, the whole team shuddered. If it was already bad that she used it for Yōsen, the treatment she gave a NATIONAL team was about ten times worst? The whacks would leave marks sometimes if the fiery woman was pissed.

“I bet you, some of ‘them’ would be coming out in the next quarter. Prepare yourselves for them AND me if you were to lag behind. GET SERIOUS YOU OLD GEEZERS!” she yelled.

Aida supplied, “If you didn’t remember, you’re the same age as us, no? ‘cept for the flirtatious dude and the pig over there.” This earned him three whacks.

Not long after, the second quarter started. This time, the other team consisted of Murasakibara, Kagami, Mibuchi, Kuroko and Akashi. This was going to be a tough battle. Shirogane wondered why Mayuzumi was subbed out, as he knew that he had more stamina than that, but shrugged it off. It was probably because they wanted to confuse them with their two different presences.

The game started once again and not long before it started, they were all taken aback by a stunt from their phantom player. “Wha… what just happened?” Nakatani wondered as Akashi did a lay up.

Even the phantom’s own team were shocked. This pass made it seem that there were two phantoms. It was a marvelous pass. As the ball hit the ground after being passed by Kuroko, it bounced off in a different direction towards Akashi, thus it looked like another phantom player joined in the passing.

On the bench, Araki was panicking. With this pass, if Mayuzumi were to be subbed in at any point in time, there would be three phantoms. Their team would surely be unable to handle that. Furthermore, Aida was not acquainted with Kuroko long enough to be used to his presence. Gritting her teeth, she hoped that her team could think of something.

On the court was the five coaches thinking hard about what they could do. Kuroko could now choose between any type of pass: Ignite Pass, Ignite Pass Kai, this new pass or his normal pass. He could also use the Vanishing Drive as those on the same level as the Generation of Miracles had a strong enough presence for him to use them.

The point gap was getting bigger. However, just when there was five minutes left, Kuroko’s new pass was stopped by Shirogane. “It seems I was right. This pass can only be caught by Akashi, am I right?” he smirked. Akashi frowned at that. It was true after all, as only he and Kuroko could ‘read minds’ so he could know what pass Kuroko was going to execute.

With a small shake of his head, Kuroko, who was quite shocked and disappointed, got the message. It went something like, use other passes until I am free of my mark. But he knew it was not so simple. Akashi wanted him to try that pass with the others, namely Kagami who trusted him fully and was always prepared should a ball be randomly passed to him. With a nod, Kuroko signaled that he understood.

The passes so far had worked, but Kagami had missed it twice throughout the game, allowing the other team to snatch the ball. Fortunately, the game went on, still in the younger team’s favour as the redheaded captain controlled the game. That was until the other team got serious.

“Heh. The reason why I picked Aomine. I’ve played street ball too in my earlier days,” Harasawa grinned. Catching the passed ball, he did a crossover to the other side. Just when Kagami was about to snatch it away, he crossed it over again and passed him. With that, he did a fade away, preventing Mibuchi, who was nearest, from blocking him. “He isn’t the only one with animal instincts.”

“Hey, Katsu, don’t forget about us, man! We aren’t that bad either!” Aida yelled as Shirogane snatched the ball, passing it to the orange haired male. “Look!” It was currently Kagami who was blocking the point guard as he could jump to block it. However, instead of stopping at the three-pointer line, he drove through and spun around Kagami, arriving at the same spot again just as Kagami landed after jumping. The ball flew smoothly into the basket.

“Hey, hey, no fair! I’ll show my skills soon too!” the others piped up just as it was time for a two minute-break.


	27. Chapter 27

“They have not utilized their full strength yet, but I am certain they will in the next quarter. Atsushi and I will remain. Ryōta, Daiki, Shintarō, you’re subbed in,” Akashi ordered as they headed to the benches. In the two minutes, they discussed a few strategies.

“Eh… Maybe we shouldn’t have said that we’re going full power. LOOK! THEY SUBBED IN ALL THEIR BEST PLAYERS!” Aida yelled comically. That made him received a hard whack to the head by Araki. As the teams walked back to the court, anyone, even the spectators, could feel the overwhelming tension in the air.

The younger team started with the ball. Since it was the last quarter, they decided to earn as many points as possible with a shootout. It was needless to say that their team would win at a shootout. It just depended if the opponents could defend well.

The ball was passed around as fast as lightning. The moment when the person holding the ball was marked, he would immediately pass to a free person. The same thing went on until the ball was close enough to be shot in. This continued for a minute until the opponent decided to go for a man-to-man defense.

“Damn! I can’t get rid of my mark!” Kise yelled as his own Kaijō coach was marking him.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Kise. This is what you get for calling me fat!” Takeuchi yelled. His arm span was long so he could defend quite a big area. He was considerably shorter than Kise, so his arms were nearer to the ground, preventing him from dribbling. His other teammates were marked too.

Just as he predicted, Kise held the ball for too long, earning a foul. Kise frowned and whined, resulting in him forming a bruise on his head as Aomine whacked him.

“Oi, oi, oi! Don’t hold the ball for too long, you fool! You can do better than that, right?” Aomine growled, walking past him. Of course he could do better. He still remembered the day he had told Kagami that he never failed to return the favour on the court.

“You want a shootout, brats? We’ll give you that too!” Shirogane smirked.

“Hey captain, you’re starting to sound like the Hyūga kid from Seirin,” Masāki slapped their captain on the shoulder. It seems like being bipolar was a trend.

Thus, the ball went zigzagging across the court as breakneck speed and even the referee looked dazed, as he could not catch up with the ball. “Hey… That’s too much sweat isn’t it?” Nijimura wondered as he scratched his chin. “They’re overdoing it! Shirogane-kantoku, should we sub in the others?”

Shirogane stared at the players. “No. They are having a good time.”

Everyone on the bench sweat-dropped at that. Yes, indeed, as you watched the players pass the ball around (It’s actually a wonder to be able to see them considering how fast they were moving), you could make out smiles of delight on their faces.

Sighing, Nijimura covered his eyes, which were sore from tracing their movements. “Gosh… They are turning back to the childish kids I had to take care of… Well, it’s for the better anyway.”

‘Yes,’ Kuroko thought. ‘I’ve succeeded in my task as a phantom who supports them. I’ve made them love basketball once again.’ He smiled. Meanwhile, Kagami gave him a weird look as if to ask why the hell he was smiling.

A satisfactory yell was heard from the spectator seats as the game came to an end. “Whaaa! That was such a refreshing game! Let’s do it again!” Kise yelled happily. As expected, the younger team had won by almost doubling the scores with a 73-138 score.

The adults on the other hand were sighing in defeat at their lost. It was a fun game, they had to admit that. “It’s our lost. We’ll treat the whole team to dinner, how about that?” Shirogane afforded. His whole team nodded, almost going to regret it as they saw three pairs of gleaming eyes, namely Aomine, Kagami and Nebuya.

Cheers were heard from the spectator stands as the two teams lined up. “I’m never doing that again…” Harasawa muttered, stretching his limbs that were sore.

Shirogane cleared his throat. “Anyway, you guys have surpassed us already. Good luck in the Olympics. If you don’t win, don’t go back to practice or else.” The Rakuzan team shuddered at that, save for Akashi.

“Do not fear. We plan on winning this,” Akashi assured. As the huge group walked out, the seniors who had come to watch the match clapped them many times on the shoulders, wishing them good luck.

They decided to eat at an okonomiyaki shop that was not too far from the gymnasium. The three food dustbins sat at a table of four, as one seat was taken up buy their bags. The rest just split themselves up. This time, Kotarō was the one flipping the okonomiyaki.

Kuroko and the others tried to warm him not to do that, but it fell to deaf ears. With a ‘plonk’, the food landed on a certain captain’s hair. “Uh-oh. I’m dead,” Kotarō stated as he stared in horror at the young captain. “Eh… Akashi? I’m sorry! I’m very very sorry! E-eh—”

He was cut off when Akashi said, “Hayama. Your training menu is tripled.” By this point, one could even sense the waves of killing intent spreading across the shop. Even the three food monsters who were so oblivious to their surroundings (other than the food before them) whipped their heads to look at the captain. At the same time, Midorima, Kise, Kagami and Kuroko all thought, ‘This is déjà vu…”

“Akashi-kun. Let’s go to the bathroom,” Kuroko silently asked the redhead. With a glare at Kotarō, the captain followed Kuroko to the bathroom. Akashi had to bend down quite low to wash his hair. Meanwhile, Kuroko just stood by the side while staring at the angered redhead.

“Akashi-kun.”

“Hm?”

“We’ll win this game. I’m sure of it. I will not let you hate the sport you love so much.”

Akashi stood up straight from the sink, his wet bangs sticking to his face. He smiled. A sincere smile. “Tetsuya, thank you.”


	28. Chapter 28

Kuroko heard rustling in the temporary bed beside his where his redheaded captain slept on. More rustling. Sighing, he broke the silence, “Akashi-kun, you can’t sleep either?”

Akashi-kun turned to face Kuroko. “Yeah. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. It’s going to start tomorrow… I can’t wait but yet I feel slightly nervous. You can't sleep either?”

“Yeah. That’s normal. It’s what everyone feels. Wait till you see Kagami-kun tomorrow,” Kuroko replied.

“Taiga?”

“Yeah. You’ll see.”

They paused for a while, absorbed in their own thoughts.

“Tetsuya, can I sleep in your bed with you? I really can’t sleep,” Akashi-kun asked softly, unsure if the bluenette had already slept.

Kuroko blushed but agreed.

“And one more thing, Tetsuya. I’ve been calling you by your first name for so long, so I want you to call me by my first name too.”

“No. Akashi-kun is fine. It's more polite.”

“Do you want to call me Sei instead of Seijūrō?”

“No. I’ll stick with this.”

“Yes, it’s an order.”

“No, I don't want to comply with that.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes, or no more vanilla milkshakes for you.”

A pause.

“Fine. Seijūrō-kun.”

Kuroko could see Aka–Seijūrō-kun smile slightly before settling down in his bed. Not long after, the two drifted off into the land of sleep, content with the other’s warmth.

The whole swarm of people around the gymnasium was like ten times the normal swarm during the Winter Cup. “Whoah whoah! Look! Look at them! Look at the teams! We’re screwed!” Hayama-kun shouted, excitement in his voice.

“Shut up! Don’t curse us, Hayama!” Mibuchi-kun yelled.

A loud and long burp rang through the area, stopping the surrounding people in their tracks. “NEBUYA!” Mibuchi-kun yelled once again. The others who had arrived sighed at their antics.

Just then, the tallest redhead in the group appeared, eyes red and wide. He looked like a monster.

“KAGAMI/KAGAMICCHI/BAKAGAMI/TAIGA! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” everyone except for Kuroko yelled simultaneously.

“Are you still a kid?” Kuroko asked.

“Oi. Shut it. I was just excited, alright?” Kagami-kun growled. Everyone laughed, with Aomine-kun slapping his knee in laughter.

“Excited about what?” Aomine-kun said between laughs. Kuroko did not really get the joke but some others whacked his head really hard.

Sighing, Akashi-kun shushed the group, ordering them to get into the gymnasium by the back door to avoid paparazzi and fans. They were fortunate that they were quite early so the place was not too crowded. Another fortunate point was that they were only seventeen, which was a rare age for Olympic basketball players. Most people just assumed they were school students coming to watch the games.

They still had about an hour before the opening would start, so Momoi-san decided to go through the plans. They were going to reserve the Generation of Miracles until a need arises. Meanwhile, they were going to use the second team, including Mayuzumi-kun at times.

Aomine-kun then asked a deadly question. “Oi, Satsuki, you didn’t make lemons, did you?”

Momoi-san smiled almost too brightly. “I did! Here!” She brought out a blue lunchbox and opened it to reveal… Rotten sliced lemons. “I was so excited I made it a week ago! I even cut them!” Everyone visibly gulped.

“Oh god…” Aomine-kun silently cursed. “Hey, anyone made lemons?! Someone save us!”

The rest shrunk back from the food, having tasted Momoi-san’s cooking in the past year of being on the same team. Kagami-kun sighed and brought out his own lunchbox. The players for that day cheered.

“Ahh, Kagamin has lemons? Ah then you others can eat mine!” Momoi-san suggested.

Kuroko quickly refused her offer, saying that they did not need lemons since they were not going to be subbed out today anyway. Pouting, Momoi-san just kept the lunchbox.

The opening ceremony, in Kuroko’s opinion, was quite boring, though he noticed that there were sixteen teams. And most of them were so tall. The emcee there even had to repeat the speech in so many languages that he himself started fidgeting. Thanks to his learning English, he could pick out a few words and terms used.

He looked up into the seats but there were so many people he could barely recgonise anyone, until his vision saw rows of similarly clothed people. Glancing through, he saw the red, black and white of the Seirin basketball uniform. He smiled to himself, glad that his own team had come to support them.

After what seemed like an eternity of boringness, the games could finally start. They were going to play a game everyday for six days straight, and if they were to advance to the semifinals, which Aka–Seijūrō-kun was sure they would or he will slit their throats, they would have to continue on the eleventh and thirteenth day. Their first opponent was Senegal at six thirty in the evening, so they could waste some time until then.

It was ironic, as Seirin’s second Inter-High’s first round was against the tall Papa, or as Kuroko dubbed him, ‘Otō-san’, from Senegal. The group stared at the players from Senegal. Just like Otō-san was, their average height was taller than Kuroko by miles.

“They are just like Otō-san,” Kuroko muttered. Unfortunately, Aomine-kun heard that and guffawed.

“TETSU, YOUR DAD IS IN THE SENEGAL TEAM?!” he yelled.

“Shhhhh. No that's—”

“IT’S TRUE?”

“No—”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AOMINE YOU ARE SUCH AN AHOMINE!” Kagami-kun laughed. Of course, since he was against Otō-san before, he knew who Kuroko was referring to, unlike a certain dark-skinned bluenette.

“Oi, don’t call me that!” Aomine-kun yelled.

Sighing, Kuroko just explained to them who Otō-san was. Now Aomine-kun was face-walling in the locker room, feeling very dumb. “Alright. The first games between Poland and Philippines will start. We will go watch all possible games to get a grasp on what our opponents would be like, since we had very little information as they are not from Japan. Bring whatever you need and let’s go,” Seijūrō instructed.

As the exited the locker rooms, they bumped into other teams. Namely, the Senegal team. “Regardez ! Ils sont si petits !” one of them said in French, pointing at their team.

“What did they say, Seijūrō-kun?” Kuroko mumbled.

In Japanese, Seijūrō-kun recited, “They said that we are small.” You could practically feel the killer intent from the redhead. Out of all of them, Kuroko and Seijūrō-kun never, I repeat, NEVER, liked being called small. The rest who were taller, though, fumed in anger, as they were already considered tall.

“We will beat them,” all of them silently vowed before storming off to find available seats.


	29. Chapter 29

Akashi turned to stare at the bluenette who was sitting beside him on the bench. Reason being? The bench was shaking. “Tetsuya, is something the matter?” the redhead asked.

Tetsuya followed his gaze down to his shaking legs. “It’s nothing, Seijūrō-kun.”

“You sure?”

“I’m just excited. Momoi-san said that we can only play in the semi-finals onwards at most, though she is trying to only let us play in the finals,” Tetsuya answered, eyeing the players on the court.

Akashi chuckled at the bluenette’s antics. He could not blame him, since he himself was also excited to play.

Currently, it was only the second quarter between the Japan team and the Senegal team. Guess the situation? The Japan team was far ahead with a twenty-point gap between the two.

Taiga’s jumping power allowed him to mark their shooting guard, and anyone for that matter who was trying to shoot. Shūzō powerful drive that allows him to drive past even the burliest players. Kotarō’s lighting dribbling so that no one could even keep up, let alone steal it. Eikichi’s gorilla-like strength, that even those Senegal players could not overpower. Reo’s amazing three-pointers that essentially could not be blocked.

Of course, the result was inevitable. Akashi almost chuckled at the shock those Senegal players felt, even cursing in French while panicking. Of course, since he had learnt so many languages over his childhood, French was one of the basic languages if he were ever to do business with Europeans.

“Aka-Seijūrō-kun, what are they saying?” Tetsuya asked as Reo scored another three.

“Nothing much, other than cursing. They are shouting out their defense strategy, apparently not knowing that I know French too. It’s amusing,” Akashi replied.

Tetsuya tilted his head to the side. “How many languages do you know?”

“Hm, many. Japanese, of course, English, Chinese, French, German, Russian, Tamil, Mala—”

“Ok, ok. I get it. Seijūrō-kun is as smart as always.” Akashi chuckled.

In the end, they almost doubled the Senegal’s score. “Hah! That’s what they get for calling us short!” Taiga yelled in glee, smirking at them. Japan had one win already.

Over the course of the preliminary round, Japan, for almost the first time ever, won every single game. Since they were in Group B, they would have a knockout stage with one of the top two from Group A. Their next opponent was Cuba.

Currently, the group was walking back all together to the convenience store nearby to get popsicles again. “Ahhh, so, we have to play in the semis too?” Kotarō whined.

Satsuki nodded. “Un! Unless there’s a dire need, but if not, you guys will be playing through!”

“Whaaaaat! I want to play already!” Daiki yelled.

Satsuki sighed. “But if we throw out our trump cards, then the opponent wouldn't have a shock!”

“Meh. Whatever.”

“Daiki, if you want to play basketball so badly, then I will have your training menu for tomorrow tripled, how about that?” Akashi concluded, smirking as Daiki shook with fear.

“Seijūrō-kun really likes to torture your teammates,” Tetsuya deadpanned.

“Torture? I do no such thing. I am merely just preparing them for the match.” Everyone sighed.

“EH WAIT. WHAT DID KUROKO CALL AKASHI?!” Kagami shouted.

Tetsuya raised an eyebrow. “Kagami-kun, are you deaf?”

“NO! I heard you, but since when were you two so intimate?!”

Both blushed slightly, though Tetsuya’s one was full blown red. Akashi was fortunate that the sun was setting, allowing the orange light rays to hide his blush.

“E-eh! Kurokocchi! Call me Ryōta-kun too!”

“No.”

“Why???”

“Because you are irritating.” Everyone laughed, though the blonde just kept on grabbing his arm to plead him. Tetsuya just sighed as the reached the convenience store to buy popsicles.

If the gymnasium was considered as packed during the opening ceremony, then the gymnasium was overflowing with people during the semifinals.

“Whoah, the tension is so great,” Reo mused as the Japan team walked to their bench. Cheers erupted at the sight of the new and powerful team of teenagers, being a first in basketball history for such a young and inexperienced team to win over and over again. And today, they were not planning to lose either.

“Look! They are so buff! Maybe even Nebuya can’t beat them!” Kotarō pointed at the Cubans.

Nebuya heard that comment and yelled, “Oi, you calling me weak, you piece of shit?” Just then, he let out a big and long burp. Everyone covered their mouth, with Reo whacking him on the head, saying he was so rude.

Akashi glared at everyone, promptly shutting them up. “These people are the second in Group A. If you lose because of carelessness, you will get your punishment.”

Everyone visibly gulped. When Akashi left it vague like that, they knew they were in trouble if they did not meet his expectations. “Allllllright! We’re heading to the court!” Shūzō broke the silence. The five walked to the center and awaited for the games to begin.

Not wanting to face the wrath of their feared captain, they did not dare lower their guards for a second, allowing them a very big head start. Apparently, Cuba was just like Seirin, needing a ‘warm-up’ time before getting serious.

“Eh… Akashicchi, doesn’t it seem like the Olympics isn’t even as fun as the Winter Cup?” Ryōta asked.

Akashi shook his head. “They are formidable opponents, based on Satsuki’s information and the previous National Team’s experience. If they weren’t looking down on us, then they’d be more serious.”

Almost just as that time, he heard a player cursing in Spanish that they should not have gone easy on them. “See? That number five over there just said that they shouldn’t have gone easy on us.”

“So Seijūrō-kun knows Spanish too.”

“Of course.”

“Show off.”

Akashi scoffed. As per expected, they beat the other team by fifty points. The whole stadium erupted in cheers once again ever since their first match. “Whoah! That Japan’s team is so cool!” some others shouted.

“Go, Japan!” some cheered.

Before leaving the court, all of them waved to the audiences, earning some wolf whistles.

Two days later, the Finals were about to begin. The two contestants? Japan and the United States. The semifinals could not even compare with the amount of people in the stadium currently. Even the other countries’ teams were here to take a look.

Then they heard a loud burst from the other team. “HAHAHAH CAPTAIN LOOK AT THEM! THEY’RE SO SHORT! JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER ASIANS!” a loudmouthed player, most likely a power or small forward, yelled. Even if they were Japanese, the current school curriculum still taught them basic English.

Thus, as high school students, they picked out some words. ‘Hahahah’, ‘captain’, ‘short’, ‘just like all the other Asians’. This time, killer intent leaked out from everyone, not just the second shortest player of their group.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your… complaint, but just so you know, you would do good not to underestimate us ‘short’ people,” Akashi said in English, not even a hit of an accent in his voice.

The Senegal players heard that and were quaking in fear. Meanwhile, the rest were just gulping, silently grieving for the US team. Taiga started complaining that it was unfair that Akashi did not even have an accent.

Ignoring the rest, Akashi glared daggers into the US players. “Oi, shorty. We aren’t underestimating you. It’s just that we believe no one can beat us,” the number four captain replied.

“Oh? I have the same confidence in my team as well. Let’s have a good match then,” Akashi growled.


	30. Chapter 30

“It will be the same starting team as usual. Now go and clinch number one!” Momoi yelled enthusiastically. Nijimura, their point guard, Kagami, their center, Hayama, their small forward, Nebuya, their power forwards, and Mibuchi, their shooting guard. This was as balanced as a team they could get.

The whistle sounded as the referee threw the ball up. The US center made it up to Kagami’s jump with his height, getting possession of the ball. This was the first time in the whole Olympics that Kagami did not get the ball. “What?” he yelled angrily.

They were quick, their point guard always cautious of where everyone was. Just as Nijimura wanted to back tip him from behind, their No. 4 captain and also point guard swerved to the right without even needing to look. He quick passed to their shooting guard who did a fast three-pointer. It was going to be hard to take back the flow of the game.

Nijimura started with the ball and did a fast break to the other court. The point guard who was marking him, however, hit the ball away before he could even drive past him. He turned back only to see their loudmouthed small forward receiving the ball before releasing it at the three-pointer line, just like how their shooting guard did.

This time, Nijimura started by passing to their dribbling expert, Hayama. Just to be safe, Hayama used four fingers to dribble the ball. Their opponents seemed much more skilled as compared to the other teams they have played. Their small forward tried to block him from dribbling past him, but Hayama was too fast, passing it to Mibuchi who returned the favour with a three-pointer.

Cheers rang through the stadium, but the players on court tuned them all out. Their point guard started and far passed the ball to their power forward. Their power forward broke past all his marks easily and dunked the ball. Defending in this match was no use, it seemed.

The ball was passed to Kagami this time. However, before he could dunk the ball in, a hand whacked it away. “I’m not letting you guys pass so easily,” their tall center smirked. Kagami scrunched up his face in anger.

The battle was intense. The US team had the upper hand, though. None of the Japan players could believe it. Their team was said to be the strongest so far, but yet this team was beating them. Kagami could not stand this. He nodded to Nijimura, a signal to tell him that he wanted to have a one-on-one.

The ball was passed to him. As quick as lightning, he passed the other center. Once again, Kagami Taiga had entered the zone.

“Tetsuya, we’re going in. There’s something peculiar about that group,” Akashi told the bluenette. Kuroko nodded just when Shirogane had asked for a member change. This time, the stadium erupted with cheers as two members of the famed ‘Generation of Miracles’ were entering the court. Nijimura and Nebuya were switched out.

Team Japan started with the ball. Hayama passed it to Kuroko who immediately sent the pass flying at the redhead, trusting that he would catch it. However, before Akashi could touch it, the point guard of the other team had whacked it away. It was impossible. They have not even used Tetsuya for more than a minute in this whole Olympics, yet this point guard could whack the ball away.

“… How?” Akashi mumbled.

“You want to know how? I am a mind reader. I’ve read about you guys. You can predict movements. How ‘bout I tell you, shortie, that I can predict what you predict?” the captain of the other team said.

“…What?”

“Are you an idiot or something? I’ve already told you and I’m not going to say it again. Hope you can find a way to beat me.” With that, the point guard ran back to his own side of the court where their power forward dunked the ball again.

‘This sucks,’ Akashi thought as he shook his head to clear his thought. He had to find a way somehow. ‘At least Taiga will spare me some time.’ He looked of in the direction of the other redhead. Like what they had drilled in their trainings, if Kagami were to enter the zone, he would be under defense unless otherwise instructed or if Murasakibara was on the court.

He silently hoped that Tetsuya would understand his plan. He tried not to finish thinking up the plan as he ran to catch a ball from Mibuchi. Just as he hoped, Tetsuya had put up a screen against the other point guard. If he needed to see your mind to predict you, what if he could not see you?

Akashi caught the ball successfully before shooting a three. He was about to whack the ball away from the point guard when he started the ball, but he did a fake and went pass Akashi on the other side. Just then, Tetsuya tapped the ball towards Kagami who passed it to Mibuchi. The latter did another three. It was unsaid that if they were behind in points, they were going to make a higher number of threes.

The point guard passed to their small forward. “Ah, did you do it like this?” he whispered quietly as the rest could only watch in horror as he mimicked what Hayama had done when he dribbled the ball. With lightning fast speed, he did a lay up.

Akashi finally noticed it. They were just like the Generation of Miracles, but perhaps an improvisation or possibly an improvement of them. ‘This is bad,’ Akashi thought as he passed the ball to Kuroko who whacked it to Mibuchi.

The said teen was about to shoot a three pointer but the towering center of at least two meters blocked him. As quick as he could, he passed to Hayama who then shot a two pointer, since he was in the semicircle already.

Neither team had bothered to defend, all too engrossed in shooting the most points and preventing the other team from stealing the ball. Every second of the first quarter seemed to pass like an eternity. When the whistle blew, the members of the teams stared at the point board. It was a wonder how both teams could score so many points.

The points were 60-57, in the US team’s favour.


	31. Chapter 31

“Ryōta, Shintarō, Daiki, Atsushi, you will be in the second quarter with me. Satsuki, have you found any information?” Akashi asked the pinknette. Satsuki nodded.

“I found some, but since their Americans, I found some in English that I can’t read. I’ve only found info on the point guard and the small forward. Apparently, the point guard can read minds, thus he can predict things further than what Akashi can. The small forward has this power that will steal your moves if he touches you,” Satsuki elaborated.

“That’s how he copied my dribbling!” Kotarō fumed. “Kise! Don’t let him touch you no matter what!”

Tetsuya glanced at Akashi. “Seijūrō-kun, will you be fine?”

“I’ll think of something. You others, beware of what those guys can do,” Akashi instructed before they were told to go back onto the court.

“So! Have you found a plan? So far no one could overwrite me and I wonder if this new team can beat us,” the point guard smirked. Akashi was getting irritated. He would beat them no matter what. He just glared at him, not saying anything.

The ball started and Akashi passed the ball to Shintarō, who immediately made a three, causing the scores to be even once again. “We won’t let you pull ahead so easily,” Shintarō mumbled, landing.

“Oh, that’s a nice skill you have. I wonder who’s better though,” their shooting guard said in English, though Shintarō understood it.

The game was fast-paced, more so than any game they’ve seen.

However, is was slowly clear that the point gap was getting bigger. The source of their problem? Their own point guard being unable to pass the ball to anyone. The opponent was strong, being able to predict anything the redheaded captain thought of.

“I have to think of something,” Akashi thought. “Wait, no. Scarp that. I shouldn’t be thinking anything. Yes, that’s right. I should NOT be thinking anything at all.” With that, he had just randomly passed the ball. He trusted his teammates that much.

He glanced to where he had passed the ball to. Sighing in relief, he saw that Aomine had chased to catch it successfully, quickly dunking the ball into the hoop. The other point guard tilted his head. “I see... You’ve been the first one to trick me. It won’t last for long though. Luck never does.”

Akashi managed to do it for a while more before he had accidentally flung the ball where there was no one. Of course, the opponent did not miss a beat and caught the ball.

“It’s alright, Akashi. We have to continue doing this because there’s no other way,” Shintarō encouraged as they ran to the other side. Akashi immediately sighed and relaxed. A stressed out mind would do him and the team no good.

There was still a five point gap difference between them, however. “Their defense is immensely good and their attack power is humongous. It’s just like our team, but they are slowly overwriting us,” Akashi thought grimly.

He then thought about the zone. Would that work? Could he concentrate so much to not think and only use his gut feel? He could try it out but it would make his stamina deplete. He sighed again, relaxing himself further.

“Ah, the zone? It’s amazing you can go into the zone willingly. Well, you’ll only know when we’re serious when we accidentally get into the zone,” the other smirked. Akashi silently cursed that this PG was JUST like a certain bespectacled Tōō senior.

His teammates glanced at the previously rigid Akashi. They immediately knew what he was thinking and moved to give him some space. When he opened his eyes once again, there was this deep concentration. With lightning fast speed, he drove past the other.

He was fortunate it worked, his teammates giving him space to move about freely, allowing him to do whatever he wanted without any obstruction. Akashi also did not need to think much, with his reaction speed heightened and his speed much faster. This helped the team to pull forward slightly, now having a ten point difference between the teams. However, the other team totally seemed unfazed.

Everything seemed to be going well. But all that is good will never last long. Akashi was having another one-on-one with the other PG when he did an ankle break. Of course, the other did not fall like the many others he had performed it against. He just lost his balance and Akashi could get past him. He did a lay up but what he did not expect was to land on the PG’s foot. He knew he was going to get fouled but just then, the PG moved his foot before he could react, causing the foot that Akashi landed on first to slip.

"Argh!" he yelled as he fell to the floor, clutching his right ankle. He stared at it while clenching his teeth, seeing it slowly become swollen. He did not feel any bones our of place, so it was fortunate none of his bones cracked. But the searing hot pain was just... too much. He tried to act strong for his teammates so they would not worry, so he put more pressure into grabbing the area above his ankle, reducing the pain somewhat. He dared not move his ankle too much though.

The referee called for a time-out and Akashi’s team immediately rushed over. “Akashi/Aka-chin/Akashicchi, are you alright?” all four of them asked, even his teammates from the bench ran over.

“I think I sprained my ankle but it’s not too bad. I can still play,” Akashi insisted. However, he promptly exited the zone, showing that he had lost a lot of stamina from the heightened senses.

“No, Seijūrō-kun. You are not playing anymore,” Tetsuya insisted as he stared at the reddening ankle.

Daiki spun around. “Oi, that was clearly foul play!” he tried to say in English.

“Hah?” the point guard sneered. “I don’t know what you’re saying! Is that greek? Wow, I never knew Japanese learnt that!” Daiki really wanted to smash the guy’s head into a brick wall. The referee was a stupid as ever, Akashi might say himself. That was such an obvious cheat but the referee did not even notice.

“It’s alright Daiki. I just can’t play now. Nijimura-sempai, please replace me,” Akashi said as he winced from the pain of trying to get up. Tetsuya grabbed Akashi’s arm before he could fall, allowing him to lean onto the bluenette for support.

“We’ll have to tape your ankle,” Tetsuya muttered as he let Akashi sit on the bench, carefully helping him to remove his right shoe and sock. Meanwhile, Akashi could only grit his teeth and watch the team as they slowly drain off their stamina from being marked so tightly and from facing difficult opponents. Now Akashi finally knew what it was like to face an opponent like oneself.


	32. Chapter 32

When Akashi could not play anymore for the second quarter, Aomine knew that the gap would start to shrink once again. It did not help that the opponent’s each and every one of their members were as good as themselves. So far, the Power Forward of the other team had not done much other than closely mark Aomine, which was getting on his nerves.

He stared at the other members of his team. He was the only one on court currently who could enter the zone willingly. If he went into the zone now, will it help? It would, obviously, but further into the game, will he lose stamina? Scrap that. If Bakagami could do it, then he could too.

He relaxed and proceeded to enter the zone. “Ahhh, another one can do that? Cooool!” the PF said lazily. That pissed the ganguro more than anyone could imagine. He just hated people who did not play seriously. Damn, he did it before but after Tetsu knocked him back, he changed.

“Captain!” Aomine yelled as Nijimura, who was currently the captain on court, threw him the ball. Nijimura would not be a match against the other PG but Akashi could not possibly play with that ankle of his. Aomine just hogged the ball and dunked it. He was not going to let the other team close up the gap.

It was about a minute into being in the zone when the other PF had not done anything much. It really pissed him off. He could feel a vein popping in his head. The gap was now around twenty points when he heard their PG yell something at the lazy PF. A glint in the burly PF’s eyes allowed a normally stupid Aomine to sort of understand what he said.

They were going to get serious.

Just as he drove past the PF and ran towards the hoop, a hand smacked the ball away. “What the?!” Aomine shouted as he spun around, only to see the PF dunking the ball in their own hoop. “How... Did he go there so fast?!”

“I don’t know, Aominecchi! But he looked like he teleported there!” Kise wailed as he was the only one who heard his question. Aomine immediately ran to mark the other.

“Oi, how did you do that?” Aomine gruffly asked. He knew he sounded really stupid trying to speak English with such a heavy accent, but he needed to know. He could only hope that the other PF was dumb enough to tell him.

“Eh, that? I may not seem like it, but I’m fast when I want to! Only in the zone! They call me, the Teleporter!” the PF rambled, a sudden spark in his eyes. Aomine then noticed he was in the zone. So, he could go in willingly too. This was going to be hard.

From what he saw, Aomine knew that this other person was faster than he was. Even Aomine begrudgingly admitted that. Now he had to think on how to win against this guy in a one-on-one. He could at least predict that in the next quarter, it would be Kagami who would face him as Aomine would have ran out of stamina by then. Aomine could only fume as his mind was blank.

Murasakibara was never an energetic person, always being the lazy sweet tooth he was. But against this certain center from US, he felt a spark in him, which was rare considering he hated basketball.

Fine he did not.

But that was only after Kuro-chin changed him.

This center was taller than him by half a head, something that Murasakibara rarely saw as he was normally the taller one. If Murasakibara was a gorilla, wait no Nebu-chin was the gorilla. If Murasakibara was an octopus, wait no he only had four limbs. If Murasakibara... Ah nevermind. The other guy would be the upgraded version of whatever animal Murasakibara was.

So far, Murasakibara could always catch the rebound for any game. But this time, this center facing him had jumping power equivalent to that of Kaga-chin, which ticked him off like a tick. He hoped Aka-chin would not punish him later if he lost to him. He wanted snacks.

It then became a brawl of centers every time a rebound were to occur. Murasakibara would only be able to catch the ball if he was originally nearer. He was meant to be the best center in the whole of Japan. He would not lose his title that easily.

So when Murasakibara saw Mine-chin in trouble when the other PF also entered the zone, Murasakibara went offense. Murasakibara could not go into the zone willingly, but he was powerful in offense. Some others immediately went into defense, one of the drills Aka-chin and Shirogane-kantoku had made them go through.

Murasakibara was passed the ball and he was about to dunk the ball in when a strong arm stopped him. Ah, the center caught up! Murasakibara growled as he tried to forcefully push the ball in, but the other arm was stronger. Then Murasakibara did a Thor’s Hammer which worked.

But, Murasakibara knew that he could not keep on doing that. He had experienced it before, being unable to jump with his huge body. But Murasakibara was NOT a kid in basketball. Since then, he had practiced to shoot the ball without jumping, so he could still play even after he would be unable to jump anymore.

Seeing the build of the other center, he could use the method that Kaga-chin used. It would ultimately deplete his jumping power in the third quarter so he would ask Aka-chin for a break. Murasakibara would at least help Nebu-chin at little by trying to make the other center loose jumping stamina.

With that, Murasakibara continued using Thor’s Hammer, with addition to jumping higher each time, causing the other center to mimic what he did. After a few minutes, Murasakibara was already panting heavily and had to switch back to defense. He glanced at the other center and smirked a little, seeing as the other was panting much more than himself, being of a bigger build.

For once, that baby of a giant made a smart move. That, Midorima knew at least. He had not been vice-captain of Teiko for nothing. He guessed Akashi’s smartness had rubbed off on everyone a bit. So far, the point guard, power forward, small forward and center had showed off some of their abilities. That left Midorima in the most danger as his opponent’s skill had not been shown.

The moment Murasakibara had lost stamina on offense and went into defense, Midorima immediately went into offense, shooting his well known threes from even further than the three-pointer line.

Midorima was never good at defense, but since he was a shooting guard, his jumping height had to be good. So it was when he was defending against the SG when he saw the other’s ability. He had never played against Yōsen before, but he had watched matches. That shooting guard of theirs, Kagami’s ‘brother’ and Murasakibara’s companion.

Fakes.

Midorima immediately turned around when he landed back on the ground. It was too late however, as the other just swerved passed the others and shot a three. “This should be Kagami’s job... Not mine!” Midorima grumbled. He had done fakes like that before, looking like he wanted to shoot but instead ducked down and drove past him while he jumped. Now he knew how the others felt. Pissed.

Never was he good in defense, so of course he had been training. Under the coaching of Akashi, Kuroko and occasionally Kagami, he had been able to see signs of a fake. There was even this one time that they had called Himuro, the Master of Fakes, down to the gymnasium to teach everyone. Of course, after some persuasion from Murasakibara, Himuro had agreed.

“There’s always hints to a fake,” Himuro had said. Midorima just had to find it before it was too late.

Out of all the members on the court, Kise felt like he was in the worst possible situation. First, Akashicchi had sprained his ankle, leaving Nijimuracchi to take care of the PG. Then Aominecchi had troubles with the PF. Then Murasakibaracchi lost a lot of stamina. Then Midorimacchi seemed to be unable to see through the fakes.

And Kise clearly wanted to help. But the loud mouthed small forward was just... so... IRRITATING!

Every time Kise made a move to help his teammates, the other would just block him, knowing that Kise could not touch him for fear of having his abilities passed to him. Kise would try and drive past him on instinct but he would stop himself after almost touching the other.

Even though he was not doing much, his stamina was getting lesser and lesser by the second. Trying to run away from another guy made it look like they were playing catching or something. Really, he looked like a scaredy cat AND a copy cat. Meow.

The team was getting even more stuck. Kise was always restricted from movements and whatnot, plus he could not enter the zone! Not like he had done it before anyway. It was with much difficulty that the second quarter had finally ended. The other team was in the lead by a point.

By far, this was their hardest match yet.


	33. Chapter 33

“Okay, so we’ve gathered information from the first two quarters. Their point guard is able to read minds, our only way of beating that is to keep a blank mind. Their small forward is able to copy moves once he touches someone, but we have no idea on how to beat that other than always running away. Their power forward has amazing speed. Unsure on how to overcome that too. Their center will be taken care of in time by making him lose jumping power. Their shooting guard... We have to find hints of a fake. That will be all. Any ideas?” Momoi summarised.

“Satsuki, will it be possible to allow me to play in the last quarter?” Akashi asked.

“WHAT? NO WAY!” everyone yelled immediately. Akashi just sighed.

“I will have to. This will only work in the last quarter though, as my leg can’t handle playing for the third and fourth quarter. The PG will be unable to read Tetsuya’s mind if he can’t see him, so Tetsuya will mark the PG. Daiki can face off the SF as he will be too fast for him to touch Daiki anyway, allowing Daiki to move freely unlike Ryōta. We will have to sacrifice blocking the PF so I suggest Shintarō to mark him as he can shoot straight away instead of having to drive past him, reducing the chances of the ball being stealed. Then I can face off the SG. My emperor eye can tell what’s a fake,” Akashi suggested.

Everyone stared at the captain with their jaws agape. “Wha... Did you just think of that?” Aomine asked.

Akashi glared at him. “Of course not. I spent the whole time on the bench thinking. Shogi was a good practice.”

Shirogane seemed thoughtful for a while before saying, “Akashi, I know how much you want to play, but... With your ankle, I won’t let you play the last quarter.”

Akashi’s eyes widened. “Why?” he yelled. Logic told him he should not. But... If they could not win... He’d have to qui--

“Shirogane-kantoku. At least let Seijūrō-kun play for five minutes. That should be all he will need,” a monotone voice piped up, interrupting his thoughts. Kuroko? “Seijūrō-kun’s father will make him quit basketball if he loses this time.”

The whole room was silent.

“Tetsuya! I told you not to tell anyone!” Akashi yelled, fuming.

Kuroko was not afraid in the least. This would help the team focus more on winning. He was about to rebut the captain when the white-haired coach sighed. “Fine. For five minutes but if your ankle starts to give way, I’m taking you out no matter what.” Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. It would be hard to play without their captain.

“Okay, now back to the main point. What will we do in the third quarter?” Momoi asked once again.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve ran out of stamina already... I don’t think I can play for the next quarter. That idiot of a PG is really hard to deal with,” Nijimura admitted. It was quite a feat for him to actually run out of stamina because as ex ex captain of Teikō, Nijimura was known for his immense stamina. However, the other team really was something else.

“Me too,” the rest of the remaining Generation of Miracles admitted one my one.

“That’s fine. So! The rest of you have to keep it up!” Momoi said, hands on her hips.

“I’ll replace Nijimura-san,” Mayuzumi said. They had a shooting guard, center, small forward and a power forward already, which only left the point guard position. Most people did not know, but Mayuzumi was originally a point guard before he had quit the Rakuzan team, only to be called back by the redhead. Being a point guard really helped him with his passes as they had to be accurate.

“You guys shouldn’t worry your asses off! We’ll make sure the point gap doesn’t widen!” Kagami growled. He was SOOOO going to enter the zone.

The match resumed once again. This time, Kagami immediately entered the zone, causing Aomine to facepalm.

“That idiot is going to waste his stamina!” Aomine groaned.

“That may be true, but Kagami-kun can enter the zone more than once,” Kuroko supplied, then continued watching the game.

They were in quite bad shape starting off, but Mayuzumi’s passes could get through once he started using Misdirection. After all, he was just like Kuroko, a phantom. Kagami handled defense from the three-point line in, as they knew he could not possibly win against the Teleporter, essentially giving up defensing the PF. Hayama was able to freely maneuver about, seeing as his dribbling skills had been ‘absorbed’ by the other. His freedom around the court allowed more points to be scored. Nebuya kept on jumping to reduce the center’s stamina more as the center must have regained some stamina from the ten minute break between the halves. Mibuchi had the most progress though, as he realised that the shooting guard’s hint for a fake was with his foot.

Whenever he jumped to shoot, he would jump off his right foot, but with a fake, he would use both. Thus, Mibuchi was able to steal the ball at times when the shooting guard was open. It was fortunate that the shooting guard was not able to have a fast enough reaction time to react to his change in center of gravity every time he switched to a new three-pointer style. This also allowed him to make the other foul a few times, allowing them to earn more points.

The scores were almost even, only with a two-point difference with the US team still leading by the end of the third quarter. Once again, the audience could only stare in awe at the number of points scored in just three quarters. 200-198. It was tiring with all of them losing most of their stamina. Even Kagami had entered the zone twice just to keep up with defense.

“The rest of you are in!” Momoi said as the others took their seats on the bench. For the time being, the marks would still be the same as in the second quarter, so that they would have the element of surprise during the last five minutes of the game.


	34. Chapter 34

It was really frustrating. Yes, Kise had been the last to join the Generation of Miracles and he knew he was possibly never as good as Aominecchi or the others, but it was never fun always being the ‘backup’. Just like how it was now.

Kise was just being a decoy for the others to score, running around like some kind of idiot, rarely even being passed the ball. Then again, he should be grateful that he could play, at least. He only had five minutes. Would it really be enough?

Then after this mere five minutes, Akashicchi would take over and play until the match was over. It had always been like that, ever since middle school. Kise would be the extra player, taken out most often, with the exception of Kurokocchi, that is. No matter how often he associated with Kurokocchi, he still could not understand how he could stand being the phantom player, not playing unless needed.

“I can’t stand this anymore,” Kise muttered under his breath. “I’ve taken everything so easily but when I’m this helpless, I want to do so much more. So much more to help the team.”

Even if no one heard the blonde, they could sense the change in aura around him. The all stared at him, only to see him in a relaxed stance, concentration marring his face. He was clearly in the zone. He was not even moving away from the other SF, so seeing the opportunity to absorb some skills from the blonde, he moved forward.

Kise smirked. This was his first time in the zone. The feeling was just exhilarating. It felt like no one could beat him. So when the other SF moved forward, Kise let him. When an arm touched his by ‘accident’, instead of letting his skills get absorbed, Kise had a whole rush of information getting into his mind. “Wha…” he exclaimed while the other player had his eyes wide open at not receiving any information. That could only mean one thing: he had overwritten the other.

“I never knew those moves. Thank you for showing me them,” Kise said in English as he used a moved he had just learnt to avoid the other. The other SF could only open and close his mouth continuously as he was at lost for what to do.

“Aominecchi! Let me touch you for a while!”

Aomine paused and stared at Kise like he was going sprouts on his head. “WHAT! NO WAY, YOU PERVERT!”

“No, not like that! I want to try something out!”

Kise reached out to touch Aominecchi for a second before pulling away. The moment he caught the ball, he flung it, back facing the hoop as the ball flew in. This was amazing. Not only could Kise copy whatever he saw, if he touched someone, he could obtain that power. Kise then decided to see if there was a time limit.

The opponent immediately member changed, but after going one-on-one with the other, Kise immediately knew that he was not even near the level of the original SF. Kise had scored many more points with Aominecchi’s ability, until a minute later when it started to die down.

“Guys, one minute is my limit!” Kise yelled to the others. He then ran over to Midorimacchi and did the same thing. Three-pointers were really amazing, though Kise still thought that dunks were better. He was about to land from a three-pointer when he stumbled a bit.

“Kise-kun, are you alright?” Kurokocchi asked. He had a modified version of the Emperor Eye, so he could somewhat see what his other teammates would do. “Your body still can’t take the burden right, Kise-kun?”

“Ahahaha,” Kise scratched he back of his head. “Yeah. But Akashicchi can’t go up until five minutes have passed! Kurokocchi, may I borrow your power? Then I don’t have that much burden on my body.” Kurokocchi nodded.

Kise should have known better. Even thought Misdirection did not put a lot of burden on his legs and arms, it depleted stamina very fast if he did not have a natural low presence like Kurokocchi had.

He just had to last until Akashicchi could come up and play. He was really losing stamina fast, so instead, after a minute of using Kurokocchi’s power, he just resorted to the powers of the zone, allowing him to move faster and avoid the others.

“Oi, Kise, don’t overdo it! If you do, I’m going to ask coach for a member change!” Aominecchi warned. Kise was already starting to exit the zone when the other team called for a member change. The other SF came out onto the court. But at the same time, Akashicchi had also walked into the court.

For once, Kise was glad he could sit on the bench. He did not think that he could last a moment longer with copying so many moves. He had helped his team tremendously. Giving Akashicchi a high five, he whispered, “Akashicchi, be careful and win this match!”

He walked past him and saw his smirk before sitting down onto the bench. Before he could get his bearings, he was glomped by all his other teammates.

“Ahh! Ki-chan is so amazing!”

“Nice job blondy!”

“Whaaa! Kise is so cool!”

At that moment, Kise felt so loved that tears were spilling out of his eyes. “You guys are all so nice to me!!!” No one even knew how his arms could hug the whole group of people.

“Oi, Kise, you idiot! Get your sweaty body off me!” that was Nijimuracchi.

“Kise, I’d like it if you do not squish me so close to yourself,” Mayuzumicchi said that.

“HUH? SO MEAN!” Kise wailed once again.


	35. Chapter 35

"I managed to do this in the Rakuzan and Seirin match. So I shall do this again,” Akashi told the others as he walked into the court.

“Eh… Akashi… You mean making us all enter the zone?!” Daiki yelled.

Akashi just huffed and smirked. “Be prepared to drain all your stamina. Let’s go.” Everyone shuddered at the thought. Not even having the strength to move a muscle was not fun at all. Akashi ignored the slight pain in his ankle as he started with the ball.

Even from the court, whispers could be heard from the audience, wondering how and why Akashi was on the court even after that ‘incident’. His eyes scanned the crowed and his sight fell on one of the nearer spectator seats. A man with similar red hair as the captain was sitting there, arms folded, eyes staring into Akashi’s like a challenge. Challenge accepted.

Thanks to Ryōta, the team was now ahead by ten points. His sacrifice of sorts will not be in vain. He looked to the frowning face of the PG. It looked like he had read his mind and was trying to formulate some sort of plan. It was fun in a sadistic way to see him in the same situation he was in just around twenty minutes ago.

As captain, he was going to bring out everyone’s potential. Already, he had entered the zone along with Daiki. Like this, they could use their time limit in the zone to the maximum. It was a little into the game when Shintarō and Atsushi entered the zone too.

The point gap was getting wider and wider. That was, until the other team had each entered the zone too. “Interesting… They can all enter the zone…” Akashi mused as he did an ankle break on the opponent’s shooting guard. “But I do not think that they have the same potential as us.”

“I know what you are thinking. Don’t underestimate us,” the other point guard threatened. Akashi raised an eyebrow, as if challenging the other. Slowly, the other team was catching up. They were not as powerless as what Akashi had predicted.

Every time is was the Japan’s team with the ball, they would change marks so that the point guard marked Akashi to destroy their ‘control tower’, the power forward to Shintarō so that he could steal the ball, the center marked Tetsuya, though it was not very effective, the shooting guard marked Atsushi to have as advantage over his reflexes with fakes and lastly, the small forward marked Daiki. It was somewhat like their strategy, but they decided to sacrifice points with Tetsuya and Daiki.

Akashi smirked as he passed the ball to the ganguro. They had made a bad mistake after all. Daiki was the team’s ace. Even though this was his second time in the zone, he knew that Daiki still had stamina left. Tetsuya, on the other hand, was the team’s trump card. As long as he had stamina to use his misdirection, he was essential on the court.

However, they knew better than to leave Akashi and Shintarō alone as Akashi took control of the game while Shintarō was a dangerous shooting guard. They had a more effective defense system, so the US team started to inch in slowly but steadily. Normally, if the PG was marked tightly, no one in their right mind would pass to him. But Tetsuya had trained his passes, so his double passes, the one that bounced in another direction again, would manage to get to Akashi. Then with a quick pass, he could get it to other people.

But this was risky. The opponent PG was as intelligent as Akashi, so to speak, and caught on in a few moments, always trying to block Tetsuya whenever he caught a glimpse of the shadow. After a while more, the opponent center lost his stamina to jump, so after some orders from their PG, he went to mark Daiki.

They had made a smart choice once again, since Atsushi was still in defense.

The game was about to finish. Just two more minutes. It may seem like a short time but on the court, everything seemed to slow down. Even a second is enough to change the flow of the game.

Kuroko glanced at all his teammates. Being in the zone would take a toll on their bodies after the game. He knew Seijūrō-kun was enduring the pain in his ankle. It was just like the Winter Cup, against a strong opponent that no one believed that they could win against. But they did anyway.

He had decided when that game ended. Even though he had told everyone that he was a shadow, he was going to be the light that supported everyone. He did not know how or when, but Kuroko suddenly could concentrate so much more and he felt like he had infinite stamina. He knew where everyone was and he knew his misdirection was better than ever. Was he in the zone?

He glanced atSeijūrō-kun who in turn smiled slightly and nodded to show his approval. So he was in the zone. And it felt awesome. No wonder Kagami-kun and Aomine-kun were so exhilarated when they entered the zone. He remembered that everyone else had enhanced strengths or even new abilities, so he decided to try out the zone.

For one, he realized that his misdirection was still working even though by this time in a match, he would be half visible to the opponents. Then his phantom shot had a higher accuracy and since entering the zone, he had never missed once. His passes were more accurate, similar to Seijūrō-kun’s perfect passes. His vanishing drive was effective even with the opponent’s own teammates in his mark’s view.

Never had he felt a greater sense of pride at being the team’s trump card. Originally, he was already their sixth man, but this was just a big boost to their power. It was like Kuroko was a shadow, but now this shadow could camouflage in any surrounding. It sounded absurd, but it was really how Kuroko felt when he was in the zone.

Kuroko seemed to be nowhere, yet everywhere. He could not be seen by even his teammates and they would only know to react when the ball was suddenly passed into their hands. Every ball that was about to be stolen, Kuroko had got it back. The only thing that was preventing the gap from widening too much was that the opponents had continuously shot three-pointers, no matter their position. And they had all made it.

It could possibly be that his stamina was much lesser compared to his teammates, but after a minute into the zone, he felt fatigue kicking in. He was so going to puke when this was over. His stamina was running out quickly too, causing his misdirection not to be as effective and causing his phantom shot to miss a few times. Now the opponents were catching up.

Kuroko could barely remember the blur of movements around the court as there was only half a minute left. Everyone was giving their all, never backing down, scoring as many points as possibly while trying to prevent the other team from stealing the ball. Point by point, shot by shot, both teams increased the number of points scored.

It was at the last five seconds that Kuroko dared to look at the scoreboard. They were one point behind. ONE point. The ball was passed to Kuroko and he immediately rushed to his side of the court. If he could not score this point, then they would lose. But if he did, they would win.

Disregarding his other teammates, the US team immediately did a box defense to prevent Kuroko from passing to anyone. Kuroko scanned the area to find a passing route. He was at the three-pointer line. Could he throw a three-pointer? He doubted so. Would the vanishing drive work? He had low stamina. How about a pass to his teammates? They were all marked by the others.

Then he remembered something he had tried to do during his personal time. Seijūrō-kun must have known as he was already running towards the hoop. Of course, the others would have ever guessed, but this was the power of the Emperor Eye.

He tried a vanishing drive on the mark before him and flicked the ball. All time seemed to slow down to the very nanosecond. The ball whizzed past another player before Kuroko and another player went to intercept it, but instead, the ball was spinning so fast that it flew upwards. Towards the hoop. But anyone watching would know that the ball would never get in.

The US supporters were all ready to cheer loudly. The US team was planning to jump with joy. He knew where Seijūrō-kun’s father was since he saw the smirk earlier. Seijūrō-kun’s father was smirking deviously. But, you should always expect the most unexpected thing to happen.

It was like a meteor could strike down anytime, but this time, it was a ball that flew into the hoop. When the buzzer sounded and the whistle blew, everyone stared at the scoreboard, only to see that the Japan team had won with one point. They stared at the hoop again only to see the redhead jump back down from an alley-oop dunk.

Cheers erupted the stadium while some others had their mouths hanging open in disbelief. Most were too absorbed in cheering but when Seijūrō-kun had landed from that dunk, his ankle finally gave way and he fell onto the floor. Kuroko and the others, even those on the bench, immediately rushed to Seijūrō-kun to help him up.

Kuroko stretched out his hand to his captain. The redhead looked up, eyes wide in disbelief that they had won.

“Seijūrō-kun, we won,” Kuroko said to confirm any doubts in the captain’s mind. Kuroko smiled the biggest smile that he had ever smiled. “See this, Seijūrō-kun? We really are the Generation of Miracles reincarnated.”

~End~


	36. Epilogue

The buzzer sounded.

“Whaaa! I’m really too old for this!” a blonde yelled as he slumped back down on his seat. Some grunts were heard from the others as well while they gulped down water given out by their pink-haired manager.

Meanwhile, a ganguro and a redheaded tiger huffed and said together, “OI, YOU GUYS SHOULD HAVE MORE STAMINA THAN THAT!”

The captain with the oppressing aura raised an eyebrow, “Says the policeman and firefighter who run around everyday.” Their phantom nodded. “We should treat them to dinner like those old geezers did to us. Any suggestions?”

“We could bring them to the same okonomiyaki restaurant!” the dribbling expert piped up.

“Ahaha, it’s becoming a tradition!” the muscle gorilla exclaimed.

The group of twenty-six basketball players exited the stadium and headed to the restaurant. Thirteen of these twenty-four people were none other than the previous Japan Olympics basketball team, consisting of Nijimura Shūzō, Hayama Kotarō, Mibuchi Reo, Nebuya Eikichi, Mayuzumi Chihiro, Kagami Taiga, Kise Ryōta, Aomine Daiki, Midorima Shintarō, Murasakibara Atsushi, Akashi Seijūrō, Kuroko Tetsuya and their manager, Momoi Satsuki.

Who were the other thirteen? Well, some were the above-mentioned people’s children, such as a very energetic young blonde who was clearly Kise’s child. There was a boy who had Aomine’s blue hair and some others. There was this kid with fiery red hair, which was Akashi’s and Kuroko’s adopted child. The manager of the group of twelve was another pinknette once again, Momoi’s child.

The shop owner had changed, so when the whole large group came in, the owner’s eyes practically fell out of their sockets. They would have a lot of business tonight.

They sat in their own respective groups and ate peacefully. Or not. Kise junior was flipping his food energetically and his father was not helping by encouraging him. Then he flipped it and it went flying to another table.

It landed on a mini version of Akashi. Apparently the Akashi had influenced him and he let out a wave of deadly aura. He turned around slowly and the smaller Kise immediately hid behind his father. Just like before, the two fathers followed their son to the bathroom to wash the food off his hair.

“I feel a sense of déjà vu…” both said at almost the same time.

When the large group left the restaurant, Akashi spoke up before they parted ways. “Well, you young bunch have talent, I must admit. You even beat us soundly, so we will have no worries in passing down our positions to you. From now on, you will be Japan’s Olympic team. Make Japan proud.”

Everyone cheered and some clapped. When they died down, Akashi continued to speak again, “I think that you guys really are the Generation of Miracles reincarnated. Good luck.”

Aaaaaaaand, the whole cycle repeats itself.

~End~

Thank you for reading and please leave a kudos/comment/whatever!


End file.
